The constructive role of the epistemic space community in the global governance of outer space on the basis of the common heritage of humankind

This study argues for the necessity of reconstructing the global space governance, which has become a gridlock, on the basis of the principle of common heritage of humankind and explains the role of the epistemic space community with the discussions of the transnational perspective, the international state and global governance of Constructivism theory. The hypothesis of the study is that as the exploration of space and space activities affect the entire planet, it is neccessary to establish and implement common norms for the global space governance through epistemic communities based on the principle of the common heritage of humankind. This study explains the principle of the common heritage of humankind in its historical development and presents its basic components and endeavors to address the exploration of space and space activities within the framework of these basic components. In 1957, the Space Age, which is accepted to have started, was replaced by the discourse of the New Space Age with the technological and scientific developments, and in this period, life on Earth has become integrated into space. The problematic of freedom of use created by the Outer Space Treaty causes a conflict with the concept of the peaceful use of outer space for the common interest of humankind. In this study, the governance problem that emerged as a result of the multi-actor and multi-layered structure of space governance today should be addressed with the transnationalism approach put forward by the Constructivism theory, it is emphasized that the epistemic space community leads the realization of the basic components of the common heritage of humankind in space governance, which has become a global gridlock. In this study, which reveals that it is inevitable for states to engage in certain collective actions through internationalization, it is examined how it is possible to construct the exploration of space and space activities on behalf of all humankind through the epistemic space community, which is considered as transnational alliance networks. Keywords: Common Heritage of Humankind, Epistemic Space Community, Global Gridlock