Right in Orbital Slots: Analysis of Tonga Incident

For a long time humans have colonized, captured and economized the resources on the earth. But with the advancement in the space law now the space and the celestial bodies are also open for being harnessed as an economic resource. One such incident was of a small Pacific country of “Tonga”. The bone of contention was the Geostationary Orbit Slot (GSO) allocation for the country by International Telecommunication Union in 1988-1990. The debate regarding the issue began when the Pacific island based company auctioned these leased GSO for commercial gains.