## 3 Legal Challenges Posed by Mega-Constellations to Existing International Space Law Regime
### Principle of Non-Appropriation
#### 4.2.2 Application of Non-Appropriation Principle to Mega-Constellations  
The initial consideration in this investigation is whether private actors--whether commercial or authorized by the national government--are unlawfully claiming or possessing vast areas of low Earth orbit. For instance, as of June 2024, there were 19 planned constellations, 547,267 planned satellites, 8 constellations with at least one launched satellite, 6786 launched satellites in all constellations, and 5880 launched satellites in constellation operational shells [96]. Do these large constellations represent the illegal appropriation or ownership of specific areas of space? On the one hand, Article 2 of the Outer Space Treaty indicates that it is against international law to appropriate any part of outer space, including void space or celestial bodies. The appropriation or ownership of space or parts of it cannot be justified by any means or methods of possession. The aforementioned constellations appear to have a disproportionate amount of control over certain orbits due to their deployment of several satellites to occupy orbital planes, which, in a way, prevents others from accessing these planes, thus appropriating these orbits [36]. With the affirmation that orbits closer to Earth are unique and that, when any actor uses these orbits to the extent that these proposed constellations will, it means that other space actors cannot. Access to outer space is unlimited in the sense that anyone with the technological means to launch space objects can explore space [36]. The Starlink satellites exclusively occupy three orbits: the 550 km, 570 km, and 540 km orbits [36; 97; 98]. This essentially means that SpaceX will be the only user and occupier of these orbits going forward, at least until its satellites are removed. As such, SpaceX will be the only occupant, and, since possession is a physical act, SpaceX seems to be the rightful owner of these orbits. Secondly, this is particularly unacceptable and a violation of space rules, since the space actors--in this example, SpaceX and other mega-constellation operators--are acting without any genuine international dialogue or agreement. Therefore, the LEO is essentially ungoverned in comparison to the GSO regime, which is managed by the ITU and other national frequency administrators. It appears that SpaceX and other actors are trying to take advantage of this loophole to claim entire portions of LEO for themselves, all before any international agreement, consensus, or even discussion is achieved [99]. This results in a purely first-come, first-served situation, which creates a unilateralism or colonialism scenario. Since a state is accountable for the actions of a non-governmental organization under international space law, it must approve, oversee, and guarantee the ongoing observance of international law by its non-governmental organizations. Therefore, non-governmental commercial organizations like SpaceX, OneWeb, and others are subject to the same appropriation prohibitions as states under Article 2. Nevertheless, SpaceX will be the only occupant and hence the lawful owner of the 550 km, 1100 km, 1130 km, 1275 km, and 1325 km heights above our planet, or whichever orbits they ultimately occupy, thanks to the launch and use of the Starlink constellation. The other large constellation operators are in a similar scenario. While the altitudes chosen for the Starlink constellation are technologically desirable for their purposes, it also means that any spacecraft not deorbited from these regions may remain there for decades or possibly longer. This underscores the significance of these altitudes, as malfunctioning spacecraft in orbits lower than 500 km will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere in a few months or years [100]. If a comparison is made, the duration of time that the mega-constellation altitudes threaten is far less than the 15-year increments in which rights for orbital slots are granted at GSO.