Accounting for the End of Orbit - An Orbital Retirement, Decommissioning and Debris Obligation Model under IFRS and US GAAP

Orbital infrastructure creates retirement obligations that conventional decommissioning models do not map cleanly. A satellite can be physically unreachable, economically embedded in a constellation, licensed under an operator-specific disposal plan, capable of natural decay, dependent on reserved propellant and ground control for self-disposal, or subject to a fallback active-removal strategy. The same end-of-mission architecture can therefore contain a recognized asset retirement obligation, an unrecognized operating activity, a contingent liability, an impairment or derecognition event, and a sustainability commitment. IAS 16, IAS 37 and IFRIC 1 under IFRS, and ASC 410-20 under US GAAP, provide authoritative principles for retirement obligations but do not provide a sector-specific method for identifying the obligating event, unit of obligation, measurement scenarios, telemetry inputs, and disclosure perimeter for space assets. This paper develops the Orbital Retirement, Decommissioning and Debris Obligation Model (ORDOM), an engineering-to-accounting framework for recognizing and measuring obligations associated with controlled or uncontrolled reentry, orbit lowering, transfer to a disposal orbit, passivation, post-mission tracking, collision-risk mitigation, contracted servicing, active debris removal, and final asset derecognition. ORDOM separates the physical asset, the economic impairment unit, and the legal or constructive obligation unit; imposes a present-obligation gate before measurement; builds a scenario-complete cost stack; uses telemetry to update probabilities without allowing engineering precision to replace accounting judgment; and preserves the different recognition and measurement mechanics of IFRS and US GAAP. Methodologically, ORDOM is framed as a Design-Science Research (DSR) contribution in financial accounting and provides a normative blueprint for standard setters, regulators, auditors, and preparers rather than a claim of completed empirical validation. Its central proposition is that economic continuity at the network level does not extinguish object-specific retirement obligations, while societal concern about orbital debris does not by itself create a recognized liability without an enforceable or constructive present obligation under the applicable reporting framework.