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Nations that damage satellites are ripe for legal challenge under the 1972 Liability Convention to the 1967 Outer Space Treaty (OST), NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine suggested on Tuesday

In a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Aerospace Nation discussion with U.S. Air Force Gen. John “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations for the U.S. Space Force (USSF), Bridenstine said that both NASA and USSF are “very committed to adhering to the principles of the Outer Space Treaty.”

“When you think about the Liability Convention of the Outer Space Treaty, it’s really been tested once,” Bridenstine said. “There was a satellite that re-entered and hit Canada, and there were some damages paid from one country to the other, and that was decades and decades ago. Today, we’re seeing satellites break apart, and things get jammed. The question is, ‘Can we test the Liability Convention in a more robust way?’ because the Outer Space Treaty is not just for fun and games. It’s intended to actually modify behavior in space, and, if we’re not testing the Liability Convention, then it’s really not worth the paper that it’s written on so I think we need to be more forward leaning on ensuring the Outer Space Treaty is adhered to.”

In the only claim under the Liability Convention, the Soviet Union paid Canada some $2 million after the U.S.S.R.’s nuclear-powered Kosmos 954 reconnaissance satellite crashed in western Canada and scattered radioactive debris on Jan. 24, 1978.

Bridenstine and Raymond, who signed a memorandum of understanding on Monday on future research cooperation between NASA and USSF, stressed the development of civil and military norms of behavior for space and a possible international code of conduct for space to build on the requirements of the OST, the Liability Convention, and the 1976 Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space.

“From my perspective, if you look at what’s in the Outer Space Treaty, it’s not all that limiting,” Raymond said during the Aerospace Nation forum. “It says you won’t put a nuclear weapon in space, and you won’t use the moon and other celestial bodies for military operations. Short of that, it’s the wild, Wild West. I do believe there is common interest between NASA and the Space Force to develop norms of behavior.”

The Defense Intelligence Agency warned in a “Challenges to Security in Space” report last year that Russia and China are developing a number of counterspace systems, including directed energy and cyber weapons, on-orbit capabilities, and ground-based anti-satellite missiles.

110 nations, including the U.S., China, Russia, and North Korea, are parties to the Outer Space Treaty.

This article was originally published by our sister publication Defense Daily.