Authors of a new book, Space Piracy: Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit, to be published in January of 2025 by Wiley and written by Marc Feldman and Hugh Taylor, outlines what they see as very real threats to orbital satellites.
“Just as pirates board oil tankers off the coast of Africa and hold them for ransom, we envision space-based pirates hijacking space cargoes and demanding payment to set them free,” they said. “The specifics of how space piracy would work remain to be seen, but in all probability space piracy will be significantly more complex than piracy at sea. For one thing, space piracy requires the use of costly, sophisticated space equipment. The barriers to entry are higher in space than they are on the world’s oceans,” suggests the book.
Feldman & Taylor argue that today’s satellite business is a “multi-trillion-dollar space economy” and is growing in importance. They state that with such values – and the consequences of interruption – then it is only a matter of time before the space pirates, whether satellite cyber-hacking (already a reality) or the threat of even more damaging involvement from major criminal cartels. “These groups have the money and organizational cohesion to pull off crimes on-orbit.”
Worse, states the book, space law is confused and wholly inadequate for these new threats.
“There are a lot of dangerous blank spots in the space law landscape. Sovereignty is muddled. Enforcement is effectively impossible, even when the law is clear, and that’s not very often. The maritime practice of ‘flags of convenience’ will likely surface in space, further complicating efforts to define and enforce laws within space’s meager legal framework,” said the authors.
The authors ask, “What can be done to prevent space piracy and crime from becoming a huge problem?” It is going to be impossible to stop all space crime, but we now have a chance to think through ways to mitigate the worst of it. [One Chapter] offers policy recommendations and counter-measures to reduce the impact of space piracy and crime. These include some legal recommendations, ideas for new space treaties, and suggestions for secure engineering of space technology.”
