ABSTRACT
Space ethics, being concerned with matters extra-terrestrial, has often been deemed to be free of considerations of global justice. However, this chapter deals with the interdependence of historical and technological processes on Earth and beyond, to show that such presumed freedom needs to be unpicked. The proliferation of actors and activities in space that characterizes the New Space Age has pushed the boundaries of traditional understandings of the global and, as discussed below, it has enabled new injustices. In this context, space ethics can reconfigure the reach and limits of global justice debates, providing a fresh perspective. This chapter tackles three issues related to space exploration: the ramifications of global injustice in space; issues that arise from the classification of space as a ‘global commons’; and the implications of satellite observations for global justice.
