Militarization of Space: Reconciling Anti-Satellite Testing with the Outer Space Treaty Framework

The international legal dispute concerning anti-satellite (ASAT) testing and the international legal regime in space activities is analyzed in this article against the backdrop of India's 2019 Mission Shakti test, which generated a high volume of debris in low Earth orbit. The research considers how the provisions in the 1967 Outer Space Treaty authorize and forbid ASAT testing by critically analyzing salient treaty provisions. The research explores significant gaps in Article IV, which allows the production of kinetic ASATs since it does not provide for the employment of WMDs in space, but says nothing regarding conventional weapons platforms. Using textual interpretation, the research reveals how modern understandings of Article IX's "due regard" and "harmful contamination" provisions have developed to possibly encompass activity causing debris generation. To deal with new challenges in the space security governance, this analysis adds to academic knowledge of how current principles in space law can be interpreted and extended.