A bolt lost in low orbit travels at close to 28,000 km/h, fast enough to pierce a satellite clean through. More than ten thousand active satellites orbit the Earth, and the rules that govern them were written in 1967, when only a handful of states had access to space. Macky Sall calls for a governance of space that gives a voice to the countries that depend on it without launching anything; it is one of the tasks he puts before the United Nations with his candidacy for the office of Secretary-General.
A sky filling up. The number of satellites has multiplied more than fivefold in ten years, driven by a few private companies. Low orbits are saturating, and hundreds of thousands of debris fragments circulate there at speeds that turn a bolt into a projectile.
Rules from another age. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty holds that space belongs to all humanity and can be appropriated by no one. It says nothing of private constellations, of orbital traffic or of resource extraction, which technology makes possible before the law has provided for them.
A majority of countries as spectators. The services space renders (weather forecasts, communications, agricultural alerts) benefit everyone, yet decisions on its use are taken among those who populate it. A farmer in the Sahel times his sowing by a satellite image that no craft from his own country produced. The countries that depend on space without launching anything should nonetheless have a say over a good declared common.
What the Secretariat can carry. In Vienna, the United Nations committee on outer space brings together each year the states that launch and those that watch; the Secretary-General can draw private operators into that room and have rules of traffic and liability placed on the agenda of the General Assembly. No decision taken in New York will clear an orbit. A first act is within reach, the convening of the operators who launched the greater part of the ten thousand satellites now in service.
Experience in multilateral negotiation. Twelve years as head of state and the chairmanship of the African Union in 2022 underpin these commitments. That experience explains why the vision statement filed with the United Nations frames its proposals as obligations: peace, security and development conceived together; a renewed multilateralism; stronger governance of the Organization.
Africa at its heart, the world in its sights.
The 1967 Outer Space Treaty and the work of the United Nations committee on outer space are public. Read all public positions at www.mackysall.net