KEY TAKEAWAYS
• The public is told there is no danger.
• Critical data remains fragmented or delayed.
• Accountability only matters before the close approach.
When the stakes are global, silence and delay are not neutral acts.
[USA HERALD] – Planetary defense is often framed as a technical challenge, but at its core it is a legal and governance issue. Detection systems, orbital models, and observation platforms are only as effective as the transparency, disclosure, and decision-making structures that govern them. When agencies possess material information about near-Earth or interstellar objects, the question is not simply what they know, but what they disclose, when they disclose it, and to whom.
Under established principles of public administration and administrative law, government agencies tasked with public safety carry an affirmative duty to act reasonably under known risk conditions. That duty does not require certainty. It requires diligence, candor, and preparedness proportional to potential harm. In planetary defense, the harm is not abstract. It is planetary.
