Space technology has revolutionized human life on Earth. Thanks to satellites, anyone with a device can access GPS services, watch TV, use bank cards, and surf the web. Satellites also support climate monitoring, weather forecasting, and global communications systems that underpin modern economies.
Today, much of this critical infrastructure is controlled not by governments, but by commercial space companies. Over the last 30 years, the balance of power has shifted dramatically into private hands. These firms now shape communications, security, and even the conduct of war — yet they are not required to systematically assess how their technologies affect human rights.
Space is not a legal or ethical vacuum.
An example of how space technology has altered the course of armed conflict is Elon Musk’s intervention during Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. His company, Starlink, provides communications infrastructure and surveillance capabilities to both Ukrainian and Russian forces. Yet Musk has consistently restricted access to those services on both sides, underscoring how a single private actor can influence military operations once managed by states.
Space is not a legal or ethical vacuum. As commercial actors assume roles once reserved for governments, the sector should be subject to a tailored human rights due diligence framework.
Fierce competition and private funding allow commercial space companies to innovate faster than governments. But speed and scale have outpaced oversight. Do we trust private space companies — often backed or owned by billionaires — to dictate military action abroad? Take entire communications systems online or offline in a day? Surveil or track a person’s movements, without their knowledge?
The answer to the above is a resounding no. Our access to these services should not come at the cost of violations of our human rights.
At a minimum, space companies should be required to complete human rights due diligence reporting, or HRDD for short. Based on the United Nations’ Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, HRDD requires companies to identify, prevent, and address adverse human rights impacts across their operations, products, and supply chains.
Our access to these services should not come at the cost of violations of our human rights.
Even though complying is voluntary, the Guiding Principles have become the global baseline for responsible corporate conduct. They provide companies with the tools to begin thinking about how their operations and products impact human rights.
However, many parts of the world are moving toward formal human rights reporting standards. In 2024, the European Union passed its Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), requiring large companies operating in the EU to identify and mitigate human rights and environmental risks in their operations and supply chains — even if they are based outside Europe. By July of this year, EU members must adopt the CSDDD into national law.
Other countries, including France, Germany, and Norway, have passed similar supply-chain transparency laws. While these frameworks vary in scope, the direction is clear: Human rights due diligence is becoming a legal expectation, not just a moral one.
Space companies, however, operate in a domain with uniquely global and potentially irreversible risks.
The activities of companies launching space shuttles can increase local pollution, generate falling debris, disrupt air traffic, and release particles into the upper atmosphere that may contribute to climate change. These impacts affect public health and environmental safety.
Security risks are equally serious. Although international agreements like the 1967 Outer Space Treaty prohibit states from deploying weapons of mass destruction in orbit, verifying compliance is extremely difficult. Satellites cannot be easily inspected once launched, and many space technologies have dual-use capabilities — meaning the same systems that enable communications, navigation, and disaster response can also support military targeting or surveillance.
A weaponized or malfunctioning satellite could generate dangerous debris, disrupt global communications networks, or trigger environmental and economic consequences that extend far beyond national borders. Even absent weapons, enhanced satellite capabilities can allow governments — or private actors — to track individuals’ movements or monitor communications without consent. These uses pose clear risks to privacy and civil liberties.
Human rights due diligence is vital to understanding and protecting our rights. Space companies — especially big players like SpaceX and Blue Origin — should adopt sector-specific frameworks that reflect the unique power and reach of their technologies.
Other industries offer useful precedents: the internet and communications sector has robust guidance on privacy issues, while the aerospace and defense industry could offer insights into managing the satellites’ dual-uses for public good and defense.
While it is promising that human rights reporting will soon have the force of law behind it for Europe (and much of the rest of the world, by extension) thanks to the CSDDD, space companies should be proactive in assessing their human rights impacts.
Space may be the final frontier, but it should not be the final frontier for human rights.
