The Mars One Project
In 2011, the Mars One project was launched. Founded by the Dutch engineer Bas Lansdorp, its ambition is to establish a permanent human colony on Mars by the early 2030s using existing techniques and components. One of the founder’s promises is to carry out the mission for six billion dollars. Quite intriguing isn’t it ? →
The Failure of the Launch of the French Taranis Satellite
On the night of November 16-17, 2020, the French Taranis satellite took off from the Guyana Space Center in Kourou. Unfortunately, this mission ended in failure, since the satellite was lost only eight minutes after its launch. →
Understanding the United States Space Force Lunar Patrols
The debate over the possibility of sending military patrol vessels into space to protect U.S. interests has been open since the official speech of Major General John Shaw, Chief of the Space Operations Command of the Space Force, on September 29, 2020. →
Understanding the ENMOD Convention
The ENMOD Convention, also known as the Convention on the prohibition of military or any hostile use of environmental modification techniques, is an international treaty whose objective is to prohibit such techniques for military or hostile purposes. Let us have a look! →
NEAR Shoemaker: The Near Earth Asteroid Rendezvous Space Probe
During a whole year spent in orbit close to the asteroid (between five and fifty kilometres), NEAR Shoemaker allowed to elaborate databases, provided in innumerable fields, such as the mass of the object, its structure, its gravity, its magnetic field… →
The Space Legal Issues with Mega-Constellations
Nowadays, we hear more and more about constellations and mega-constellations projects consisting of hundreds or thousands of small spacecraft. A satellite constellation is a group of artificial satellites working together. Is it legal? What are the space legal issues? →
Anousheh Ansari: The First Female Space Tourist
As a child, Anousheh Ansari used to look at the stars when life became too hard. Born in the 1960s in Iran into a modest family, she emigrated to the United States of America at the age of sixteen, without speaking the language. She became the first female space tourist. →
Space Adventures: The First Private Space Company
On June 25, 2020, Space Adventures announced that it had signed a contract with Russia space corporation Energia to send two tourists in 2023 on board the Soyuz spacecraft to the Russian segment of the International Space Station (ISS). →
The Artemis Accords Explained
The Artemis Accords state that the use of space resources can benefit humanity. And NASA plans to exploit lunar resources extensively during the Artemis program, especially the water ice that seems to be plentiful on the permanently shadowed floors of lunar craters. →
Toucan Space, a French startup by Louis de Gouyon Matignon
With Toucan Space, a French startup by Louis de Gouyon Matignon, send to space or the International Space Station (ISS) any personal object, your photo or a special postcard. Once the mission is completed, receive home your space-flown object and fun mission goodies. →
ISEE-3: The First Satellite To Reach Lagrange Orbit
ISEE-3 is a satellite from the ISEE program “International Sun-Earth Explorer”. The purpose of this program was to study the relations between the solar wind and the terrestrial magnetosphere. Let us have a look! →
All About The First Space Tourist
Dennis Tito, a rich Californian, passionate by cosmos issues since he was seventeen years old, has introduced the idea of space tourism by planning a special project with Russia in 2001. →
The Association of Space Explorers
Today, the Association of Space Explorers works to promote space exploration, science, engineering, and environmental protection related to these activities. ASE is an international association whose membership is selective. →
Understanding the Wolf Agreement
In 2013, the Wolf Agreement was introduced by Franck Wolf in order to control and submit to Congress approval any space related collaboration between the United States and China. →
India is sending astronauts in space in 2022: why it is important
As part of the Gaganyaan mission, Indian astronauts will be sent into space in 2022. This is a true revolution concerning human spaceflight and space legal issues. Let us have a look at it. →
The crazy history of the space OTRAG company and space law aspects
Concerning the OTRAG and after several months of negotiations, mostly in Africa, a contract was finally drafted and signed on March 26, 1976, with Zaïre, to establish a launch center in northern Shaba. →
Conquest of Mars: Phoney War, Cold War or Star Wars?
Protagonists have changed, but motivations remain the same. The conquest of space will always remain the supreme aspiration of countries wanting to assert themselves as a great power in the eyes of humans, through technology. Only a question of cultural soft power? Not so sure. →
Understanding the NASA Artemis Accords
On May 15, 2020, NASA published the Artemis Accords that put in place a set of principles to guide the execution of the Artemis program to send a team of astronauts to the Moon by 2024. →
Understanding microstates and international law
What are microstates? Are they legal? How are they formed? From the point of view of public international law, the State is defined as a group of individuals established on a given territory under the exclusive and effective authority of a government. →
NASA and the rules for naming its spacecraft
Mercury, Apollo, Ares, Artemis… are the names of NASA’s most famous spaceships, spacecraft and large-scale missions. Each of them is as firmly associated with the history of space exploration as with its first owners, the gods of Greek and Roman mythology. →