ABSTRACT
Fostering international cooperation is a key element in the national space policies of numerous spacefaring states. It is an underpinning of the Outer Space Treaty, being addressed multiple times in the text of the treaty in the context of cooperation on legal and scientific issues as well as space exploration, with the ultimate purpose of maintaining friendly relations among states and maintaining international peace and security. 1 While there is a long history of using a multitude of mechanisms to foster international cooperation in various areas of international relations, mechanisms to foster cooperation on issues relating to outer space are comparatively new.
