Analysis of Legal Issues in Commercial Space Debris Removal

As the quantity of space debris continues to rise, global space activities are facing increasingly severe security challenges. Against this background, introducing commercial actors to participate in Active Debris Removal (ADR) is not only a practical choice to alleviate pressure on the orbital environment, but also promotes the transformation of the outer space governance model from state-led to diversified cooperation.The legal issues involved in commercial space debris removal are intricate and complex, centering on three core issues that present the greatest urgency and regulatory difficulty in current on-orbit operations: the attribution of state responsibility, damage compensation mechanisms, and safety regulation. The existing state-centered international legal framework governing outer space shows evident lag in promoting and regulating commercial ADR activities. It reveals structural challenges, including ambiguous regulatory attribution of private entities, imbalances in responsibility and compensation mechanisms under multi-state participation, gaps in transnational regulation, and security risks arising from the dual-use nature of active removal technologies.These issues not only hinder the practical advancement of commercial ADR activities, but may also trigger international legal disputes and threaten the security order of outer space. In response, it is necessary to promote the modernization of the international outer space legal system, clarify the legal status of private entities involved in commercial ADR, establish multilateral responsibility-sharing and coordinated regulatory mechanisms, and formulate behavioral norms for dual-use technologies. This aims to provide institutional support for reshaping the global outer space governance order and to secure greater initiative for China in the formulation of relevant international rules.