The law above the atmosphere
Nobody can own the Moon and everyone agrees on that. Whether a company owns the regolith it digs is unsettled, and how it gets settled decides whether lunar mining is financeable.
Latest
120 articles, three pillars and a reach that follows the service rather than the operator. Where the file has got to in…
Everyone bears their own losses regardless of fault. Above that sit three tiers of third party protection, one of which has never…
One bad year in 2023 wiped out several good ones and pushed the five year margin negative for the first time since…
An astronomy body got through the courthouse door where a competitor could not, then lost anyway. Read with Viasat, the two decisions…
Orbital positions are not owned, they are recorded. Here is the filing chain, the seven year bringing into use deadline, and the…
Twenty five years became five. The scope limits matter more than the headline: below 2,000 km, uncontrolled reentry, launches after 29 September…
Insights
Long form work on the questions the sector argues about: who owns what, who pays when things go wrong, and which rulebook applies where.
Nobody can own the Moon and everyone agrees on that. Whether a company owns the regolith it digs is unsettled, and how it gets settled decides whether lunar mining is financeable.
The Liability Convention applies a fault standard to orbital collisions and never defines fault. That gap is why no claim has ever been brought for a…
Regulatory updates
Case notes
Space law 101
Plain English explainers on the treaties, the licensing regimes and the career routes into the practice.
The field people imagine and the field that hires are different. Four routes in, what actually differentiates candidates, and an honest answer…
Six of its seventeen articles do almost all the work. Here is what Articles I, II, VI, VII, VIII and IX actually…
Space law is two layers, not one. Five UN treaties that barely move, and a fast changing pile of national licensing rules…
Commercial space
Launch services agreements, insurance, spectrum and export control. Where the money and the risk actually sit.
Everyone bears their own losses regardless of fault. Above that sit three tiers of third party protection, one of which has never…
One bad year in 2023 wiped out several good ones and pushed the five year margin negative for the first time since…
Orbital positions are not owned, they are recorded. Here is the filing chain, the seven year bringing into use deadline, and the…
Opinion
Where we think space governance is going, and where it is stuck. Signed opinion, not reporting.
When two satellites are heading for the same point in space, no authority anywhere can require either to move. Funding TraCSS does not fix that, because the gap is legal, not technical.
Interviews
Conversations with regulators, in-house counsel, operators, insurers and academics on how the rules land in practice.
We are looking for regulators, in-house counsel, underwriters and academics. Here is what we ask, how the process runs, and why you…
Resources
A checked directory of the licensing authorities, treaty bodies, registers and primary rule texts that govern activity in orbit. Links go straight to the official page, not a summary of it.
The UN office that services the space treaties and publishes treaty texts, national laws and capacity building material.
www.unoosa.org United StatesIssues launch, reentry, launch site and reentry site licences and experimental permits under 14 CFR Part 450.
www.faa.gov European UnionThe official page for the proposed regulation on the safety, resilience and sustainability of space activities.
defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu United StatesLicenses satellite systems and earth stations and attaches orbital debris and spectrum sharing conditions.
www.fcc.gov IndiaThe single window authorisation and supervisory body for non-government space activity under the Indian Space Policy 2023.
www.inspace.gov.in InternationalRecords satellite frequency and orbital slot filings and runs the coordination and notification procedures.
www.itu.intSubmissions
We publish practitioners, academics and students. Case notes, regulatory analysis, opinion and explainers. No fee to submit, no fee to publish, and we tell you either way.
