New Space
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). →
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. →
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. →
MirCorp, the first New Space Company
MirCorp has one objective: “to operate the space station in a private way”. And the company has a lot of projects. In June 2000, The New York Times tells that an American millionaire, Dennis Tito, spent twenty million dollars to afford a stay of ten days at Mir space station. →
Legal standards of space tourism: clarifying the status of space tourists as astronauts
Space tourism has become the new hub following the increasing interests of State and non-State actors in the exploration and use of outer space. Accordingly, space tourism has become inevitable in determining certain issues in commercial space travel such as cost, liability, etc. →
Towards an International Space Agency?
It is in the light of all this questioning, and of all this projects that we fully understand the need for an International Space Agency (ISA) which will establish a common program and course of action. It would define the objectives of humanity on a short, medium and long term. The first one could be the organisation of mission on Mars. →
Advertising in outer space: the beginnings of commercial drifts?
Advertising is everywhere: on posters (paper or digital), in magazines, on TV, on the Internet, in our smartphones, and even soon in our connected and autonomous cars. Is the next step the sky? Will we one day see giant billboards floating in the clouds… even in outer space? →
The need to establish a communication network in deep space
Optical space telecommunications is a category of space telecommunications based on the use of lasers for data transmission. This technique makes it possible to considerably increase the speed compared to radio links while reducing the electrical power required. →
In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) and the future of commercial space
Today, many in the space community think that In-situ Resource Utilization (ISRU) is not ready for use in actual missions, however it is a fact that space resources are already being used in outer space today. Solar energy provides substantial capability to satellites in Earth orbit and on inter-planetary journeys. →
The Universe, a zone of lawlessness
This spacecraft, the Tesla Roadster, was not going to measure anything, observe anything. It was a grand publicity stunt, at the cost of “intentional pollution” of outer space. The radio installed on board the imitation vehicle, and supposed to play the song Life on Mars? by David Bowie was too much detail: there is not even a sound in space! →
The legal status of 3D printed food in outer space
There is no 3D printed food in space that is eaten by astronauts. It would be useful to enforce a new legal regime for these space objects, to ensure that the development of this method is not restrained by the procedure created for objects sent into space from Earth. →
Astronationalism or nationalism in outer space
Nationalism in space or astronationalism is something that should not happen. Humankind should learn from the past and continue the cooperation, as it is seen in the case of the ISS, to lead space exploration. For space conquest, the Earth should be one, a single entity. →
Commercial Space Transportation Activities
The Office of Commercial Space Transportation, generally referred to as FAA/AST, is the branch of the United States Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) that approves any commercial rocket launch operations in the case of a U.S. launch operator and/or a launch from the U.S.. →
Space legal issues concerning second-hand satellite market
The opportunity with on-orbit services would be the development related to the creation of a second-hand satellite market. Let’s study the space legal issues concerning second-hand satellite market. →
Analysis of the 2008 French space law
The adoption of the 2008 French space law or “LOI du 3 juin 2008 relative aux opérations spatiales” on June 3, 2008, which addressed several issues intimately linked to the privatisation of space activities, marked the outcome of several years of discussions, and finally provided France with a legal framework for activities in outer space. →