space law
The Convention on the High Seas
Space law is usually compared to the Law of the Sea. For this new article in Space Legal Issues, let’s have a look at the Law of the Sea, and especially to the Convention on the High Seas of 1958. The treaty was signed on April 29, 1958 and entered into force on September 30, 1962. Let’s look at some interesting articles of the Convention. We’ll focus on those resembling Outer Space Treaty’s ones. →
The Soviet Almaz military space station
The Almaz, meaning “Diamond” in Russian, was a highly secret Soviet military space station program, begun in the early 1960s. Along with some state-of-the-art spy equipment, such as cameras and radar, Almaz would carry a cannon, a modified version of the Rikhter R-23, in its arsenal. Only after the fall of the U.S.S.R. did Russian sources revealed that the cannon had actually fired in orbit. →
What is orbital station-keeping?
For many Earth satellites, the effects of the non-Keplerian forces, like the deviations of the gravitational force of the Earth from that of a homogeneous sphere, the gravitational forces from Sun/Moon, solar radiation pressure and air drag, must be counteracted. The orbital manoeuvres made by thruster burns that are needed to keep a spacecraft in a particular assigned orbit are called orbital station-keeping. →
Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space
On June 10, 2014, Russia introduced to the Conference on Disarmament an updated draft of its working paper with China, “Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space, the Threat or Use of Force against Outer Space Objects”. →
Launch period and launch window
A launch period refers to the days that the rocket can launch to reach its intended orbit. A launch window indicates the time frame on a given day in the launch period that the rocket can launch to reach its intended orbit. The dynamics change from mission to mission, and determining the launch period and launch window is an important part of the overall flight design. →
Parking orbit and graveyard orbit
Parking orbit and graveyard orbit are two used Earth orbits. An orbit is the curved path through which objects in space move around a planet or a star. The 1967 Treaty’s regime and customary law enshrine the principle of non-appropriation and freedom of access to orbital positions. →
Palapa A1, the first Indonesian satellite
Palapa A1, the first Indonesian satellite, was launched on July 8, 1976. The first communications satellite to be owned by a developing nation, was launched from Florida by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA). The purpose was to unify the telecommunications of the nation. →
Momo-3, the first private Japanese rocket to reach outer space
Momo-3 is the first private Japanese rocket to reach outer space. The Momo-3 rocket, an unmanned, 10-metre, one-ton sounding rocket, of the Japanese start-up Interstellar Technologies, has successfully taken off on May 4, 2019, and flown to outer space. →
Brilliant Pebbles
Brilliant Pebbles was a ballistic missile defense (BMD) system proposed in 1987, at the end of the Cold War. Brilliant Pebbles was the idea of Lowell Wood and Edward Teller, “the father of the hydrogen bomb”, of the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL). →
The overview effect
The overview effect is a cognitive shift in awareness reported by some astronauts during spaceflight, often while viewing the Earth from outer space. Many people who have experienced outer space have lived the overview effect, “truly transformative experiences including senses of wonder and awe, unity with nature, transcendence, and universal brotherhood”. →
An interview with Jacques Arnould
An interview with the French priest Jacques Arnould working for the CNES on ethical questions linked to outer space: Mars, the Moon, the exploitation of celestial bodies, science and faith, forestry, and the future of space law. →
Space weapons, satellites and anti-satellite systems
The only way to prevent Article IV (1967 Outer Space Treaty) from constituting an empty provision is a collective commitment by states aimed at updating international and national laws on outer space and the discipline of space weapons. →
Intasat, the first Spanish satellite
Intasat, the first Spanish artificial satellite launched in a Sun-synchronous orbit culminating at about one thousand and five hundred kilometres to study the ionosphere, was a milestone. It was, as one of the people involved said, “making a satellite that would teach us how to make satellites”. →
The Berlin Space Protocol
The Berlin Space Protocol, marking a significant step forward in harmonizing and unifying the rules of national laws on the subject of asset-backed finance for mobile space equipment, seeks to extend the benefits of the Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment to “space assets”. →
Bloostar, sending satellites via stratospheric balloons and space law
Bloostar, designed by the private Spanish company Zero 2 Infinity to launch small satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), reinvents access to outer space, thanks to stratospheric balloons. Bloostar is a launch vehicle currently in development, intended to compete in the small satellite launch market. It is based on the rockoon concept. What about space law? →
Astronomical Netherlands Satellite, the first Dutch satellite
The Astronomical Netherlands Satellite or ANS, also known as Astronomische Nederlandse Satelliet, the first Dutch artificial satellite, was a space-based X-ray and ultraviolet telescope. Launched into a high inclination, Sun-synchronous orbit, it was designed as an astronomical observatory. The spacecraft was attitude-controlled by magnetic coils interacting with the Earth’s magnetic field. →
Azur, the first German satellite
Azur (also called GRS-A), launched into a near-polar orbit from the Vandenberg Air Force Base (a United States Air Force Base in California) on November 8, 1969, was the first German artificial satellite. →
The Strategic Defense Initiative and outer space military laws
The U.S.-led Strategic Defense Initiative or SDI, sometimes referred to as “Star Wars”, was a missile defense program launched during the Cold War by Ronald Reagan. It was a satellite network project whose role would have been the detection and destruction of ballistic missiles launched against the USA. →
A garage for satellites in Low Earth Orbit?
A “space garage” or garage for satellites in Low Earth Orbit (LEO), at an altitude of roughly two thousand kilometres or less, could, while orbiting the Earth at a speed of about twenty-eight thousand kilometres per hour, operate different kinds of services on satellites as well as recycle space debris. →
Aryabhata, the first Indian satellite
Aryabhata, the first Indian artificial satellite, which was built by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), was launched from Kapustin Yar on April 19, 1977. India’s first unmanned satellite, which was assembled at Peenya, near Bangalore, was named by Indira Gandhi after Aryabhata, the first of the major mathematician-astronomers from the classical age of Indian mathematics and Indian astronomy. →