Abstract
The UN COPUOS Guidelines for the Long-term Sustainability of Outer Space Activities constitute a set of recommendations that are necessary to be pursued if states want to make space activities sustainable over the long term. The fact that this document was developed clearly confirms the threat for the safety of space activities conducted and for their continuation in the future. This scenario justifies the need to take adequate measures that comply with the recommendations stipulated in the Guidelines. It is, however, not possible without a proper space policy that takes account, among other things, of the pro-environmental context of the conceptual framework of the long-term sustainability of outer space activities. The main goal of this article is to demonstrate that implementing the concept of long-term sustainability of outer space activities is related to, and justifies the need for, states to guarantee the ecological security of outer space. Although the assumptions of the concept of ecological security were shaped in the doctrine of national law in response to the need to protect the Earth’s environment from various threats, the growing problem of space pollution fully justifies the discussion on the ecological security of outer space. This conclusion is reinforced by the essence of the concept of the long-term sustainability of outer space activities.