On Friday Sentinel-5P was launched. The British press were keen to emphasise that it was ‘British built’[1], one, the Mirror, goes so far as the call it “Britain’s Sentinel-5P”. I found the UK press’ coverage of Sentinel-5P to be indicative of much of the coverage of Europe and the European Union in general, and helps […]
Read more "Sentinel 5P and Brexit"Wednesday marks the 60th anniversary of the flight of Sputnik, next year marks the 50th anniversary of the flight of Apollo 8, the first flight to ‘leave Earth’s gravity well’ and fly around the Moon, and we’re rapidly approaching the 50th anniversary of the first-time human beings walked on another celestial body. We’re well into […]
Read more "UNESCO on the Moon? Heritage Protection in Outer Space"I am not an expert on nuclear weapons, nor do I claim to be. I am however a citizen of a democracy, and in particular one which has a nuclear weapons capability of its own. Nuclear weapons are a critical issue, it is no hyperbole to state that their use, even on a ‘limited’ basis, […]
Read more "Some Thoughts on Nuclear Weapons or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Like the Ban"This week I attended the fourth meeting of The Hague Space Resources Governance Working Group[1] (I am an observer). After the publication of draft building blocks, I will do another post on them and the Working Group itself but in the meantime, I thought that I would take this opportunity to discuss space mining in […]
Read more "Space Law and Space Mining"Between Asgardia[1] and Elon Musk inspired talk of Mars colonies, there has been quite a bit of discussion of colonization of space and celestial bodies and the possibility of setting up a space nation recently. Some of these groups have addressed, even if inadequately, some of the legal concerns surrounding creating a space colony, settlement […]
Read more "Building a ‘Space Nation’"Luxembourg has become the second nation, the first in Europe, to provide a legal framework for space resource utilization activities (i.e. space mining). Their law comes into force a little over a week from now, on 1 August 2017, and an English translation can be found here (note only the French version is official). They […]
Read more "Luxembourg’s New Space Law"The Space Industry Bill[1] was announced as part of the Queen’s Speech on 21 June 2017. It received its first reading in the House of Lords the week after on 27 June. The Space Industry Bill is the UK Spaceflight Act which was introduced into Parliament earlier this year but was only part way through […]
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