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The actors in outer space have changed dramatically, involving not only new states but also private entities including start-ups, universities, and other new market entrants. The topics that require regulation have also changed, moving from broad principles to govern the initial stages of space exploration to much more complex questions with greater interests at stake. These topics include new kinds of activities, made possible by fast technological progress and often involving great potential for commercial gain, and also issues of growing concern for humankind as a whole with regard to the continued exploration and use of outer space. This essay looks at how new state participants view established and emerging international legal principles regulating space activities and highlights potential points of agreement or disagreement in that respect.

The creation of space law is rooted in the aftermath of the Cold War. The two world powers of the time—the United States and the USSR—joined forces in the UNCOPUOS (UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space) to introduce law to outer space and ensure that the use and exploration of this domain was conducted for peaceful purposes. Against this backdrop, the negotiations underlying the drafting of the Magna Carta of outer space—the Outer Space Treaty—demonstrate how these two world powers set aside various political differences in order to reach a legal compromise for the benefit of the world as a whole. Today, half a century after this milestone, the landscape of the use and exploration of outer space has changed dramatically, particularly in terms of the technology involved. As a result, the question is whether international space law and UNCOPUOS are still able to provide a relevant framework within which the peaceful use and exploration of outer space can progress.

The EU 7th Framework Project FAST20XX [1] aimed to enlarge the foundations of suborbital high-speed transportation in a wide variety of fields. One of the key issues of this project was to outline a desirable regulatory framework that would best serve the interests of all European stakeholders in this new activity. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has issued a series of requirements for operators of commercial suborbital flights under the 2004 Commercial Space Launch Amendments Act (CSLAA), enabling the corresponding market to develop. These regulations were initially valid until 2012 but have now been extended until 2015. In Europe, practical and successful attempts to fly experimental vehicles of this kind do not yet exist. However, several developments indicate that it is becoming urgent to pay attention to this potential new industry and find ways to regulate it in a safe yet flexible manner. Although the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) explored the possibility in 2008 to prepare for a certification approach under the concept of “Suborbital Aeroplanes” (SoA), this initiative was put on hold in 2011, and a final decision by the European Commission is still pending. This paper highlights some of the research performed by the authors towards the establishment of a roadmap for future regulation of suborbital flight in Europe. In particular, it will present results of a survey carried out among stakeholders, including operators and manufacturers of vehicles, spaceports, national and European regulators, insurers and brokers, consultants, users and lobbyists. The paper also presents results from the workshop on the future regulatory framework for suborbital flights in Europe, which was co-organised by the present authors and held in Brussels in October 2012.

In response to the growing importance of space exploration in future planning, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) Panel on Exploration (PEX) was chartered to provide independent scientific advice to support the development of exploration programs and to safeguard the potential scientific assets of solar system objects. In this report, PEX elaborates a stepwise approach to achieve a new level of space cooperation that can help develop world-wide capabilities in space science and exploration and support a transition that will lead to a global space exploration program. The proposed stepping stones are intended to transcend cross-cultural barriers, leading to the development of technical interfaces and shared legal frameworks and fostering coordination and cooperation on a broad front. Input for this report was drawn from expertise provided by COSPAR Associates within the international community and via the contacts they maintain in various scientific entities. The report provides a summary and synthesis of science roadmaps and recommendations for planetary exploration produced by many national and international working groups, aiming to encourage and exploit synergies among similar programs. While science and technology represent the core and, often, the drivers for space exploration, several other disciplines and their stakeholders (Earth science, space law, and others) should be more robustly interlinked and involved than they have been to date. The report argues that a shared vision is crucial to this linkage, and to providing a direction that enables new countries and stakeholders to join and engage in the overall space exploration effort. Building a basic space technology capacity within a wider range of countries, ensuring new actors in space act responsibly, and increasing public awareness and engagement are concrete steps that can provide a broader interest in space exploration, worldwide, and build a solid basis for program sustainability. By engaging developing countries and emerging space nations in an international space exploration program, it will be possible to create a critical bottom-up support structure to support program continuity in the development and execution of future global space exploration frameworks. With a focus on stepping stones, COSPAR can support a global space exploration program that stimulates scientists in current and emerging spacefaring nations, and that will invite those in developing countries to participate—pursuing research aimed at answering outstanding questions about the origins and evolution of our solar system and life on Earth (and possibly elsewhere). COSPAR, in cooperation with national and international science foundations and space-related organizations, will advocate this stepping stone approach to enhance future cooperative space exploration efforts.

Many eminent space lawyers gathered in Singapore to attend the first space law conference to be held in South East Asia. Topics for discussion—which included commercialization of space activities and its effect on the needs of developing countries, and the legal issues of expanding communications and navigation satellite services—were of particular interest to the region. This report summarizes the presentations in each session and presents the conclusions and recommendations—such as the need for a legal instrument to regulate remote sensing—produced.

The aim of this chapter is to provide some insight into the legal aspects of space activities from the perspective of a non-lawyer. Engineers and scientists increasingly express an interest in the legal aspects of space activities. Law is sometimes seen as barring technological progress by imposition of prescriptive rules and regulations, but the understanding that law can also protect and promote the interests of space science and technology is gaining ground.

Since the first space object was launched into orbit in 1957, humankind has been engaged in a constant effort to realise ever more ambitious plans for space travel. Probably the single most important element in this ongoing evolution is the development of technology capable of transporting large numbers of passengers into outer space on a commercial basis. Within the foreseeable future, space will no longer be the sole domain of professionally trained astronauts or the exceptionally wealthy. The prospects for both suborbital and orbital private human access to space give rise to some interesting and difficult legal questions. It also opens up an exciting opportunity to develop an adequate system of legal regulation to deal with these activities. The existing international legal regimes covering air and space activities are not well suited to large-scale commercial access to space, largely because they were developed at a time when such activities were not a principal consideration in the mind of the drafters. The lack of legal clarity represents a major challenge and must be addressed as soon as possible, to provide for appropriate standards and further encourage (not discourage) such activities. This article will examine some of the more pressing legal issues associated with the regulation of space transportation of passengers on a commercial basis, seen in the light of Article 1 of the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which states that the ‘exploration and use of outer space […] shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries […] and shall be the province of all mankind’. An appropriate balance must be found between the commercial and technological opportunities that will arise and the principles upon which the development of international space law have thus far been based.

An international colloquium on the Spaceplane and the Law was organized by the French Society for Air and and Space Law, with the help of the European Space Agency, the French Civil Aviation Authority, the Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES) and Air France, and had ICAO, Eurocontrol and the French Ministries of Foreign Affairs, Transport, PTT and Research as its patrons. The purpose of the colloquium was to create awareness of the legal problems that may arise when spaceplanes become reality, and to propose solutions to those problems. The colloquium was held in Paris on 14–15 May 1991.

Preface by the IISL President Introduction by the IISL Directorate of Studies Manfred Lach's The Law of Outer Space Revisited The Law of Outer Space Foreword Introduction Chapter I The New Horizon of International Law Chapter II The New Chapter of International Law Chapter III First Stages of International Co-Operation Chapter IV The Legal Regime of Outer Space and Celestial Bodies Chapter V The Frontiers of Outer Space Chapter VI The Legal Situation of Objects Launched into Outer Space and of Astronauts Chapter VII Assistance to Astronauts, Return of Astronauts and Space Objects Chapter VIII Space Telecommunications Chapter IX Peaceful Use-Arms and Armament Chapter X Rights and Obligations of States Chapter XI Responsibility Chapter XII The Law-Making Process Conclusions Annexes Annex I. Treaty on Principles governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and other Celestial Bodies Annex II. Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space Annex III. Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects Selected Bibliography Index About the International Institute of Space Law.