In coming decades, governments will increasingly be confronted with enduring societal challenges, including threats to the physical environment and the management of natural resources and issues relating to major trends that will shape society at large: growing mobility and its consequences, increasing security concerns, and a gradual shift to the information society.

Tackling these challenges effectively will not be easy. It will require consistent, sustained, co-ordinated efforts over long periods of time. Space can help in this regard. Indeed, space technology offers inherent strengths, such as non-intrusive, ubiquitous coverage, dissemination of information over broad areas, rapid deployment and global navigation capability. Space systems may be able to provide effective support to public action, if appropriate space applications that fully meet users' needs can be developed in a timely manner.

This book explores what this contribution might be. It discusses the challenges for developing space applications. It assesses the strengths and weaknesses of the institutional, legal and regulatory frameworks that currently govern space activities in the OECD area and beyond. Finally, it formulates an overall policy framework that OECD governments might use in drafting policies designed to ensure that the potential that space has to offer is actually realised.