Today marks the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11 landing on the Moon, and what better way to celebrate than a look at the space law involved in the landing![1] Background The space law situation in July 1969 was slightly more truncated than it is today. The Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of States […]
Read more "Apollo 11 and Space Law"Once again, I attended the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UNCOPUOS) as part of the delegation of the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC). In this post I will discuss the discussions under the space resource agenda item, which will hopefully be a useful exercise, I don’t go […]
Read more "Space Resources at the UN"This post is on a topic that I have been mulling for some time now, but was prompted by the recent editorial in the Financial Times calling for the laws of outer space to be ‘updated.’[1] I have no real issue with the piece in and of itself, there are more than a few points […]
Read more "Updating Space Law"The second meeting of the second phase of The Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group (hereafter ‘the Working Group’) was held in Luxembourg last week (29-30 November). It was an interesting, informative and productive meeting continuing what has been an interesting (albeit at times frustrating), informative and productive process, and I’m grateful to Tanja […]
Read more "Discussing Space Mining in Luxembourg"The International Astronautical Congress (IAC) in Bremen during the first week in October was the first time that I had attended an IAC. It was, quite simply, a fairly amazing experience. The theme of the conference was ‘Involving Everyone’ which is a great theme and it was wonderful to hear that nearly half of all […]
Read more "IAC 2018"This is, what I believe the ‘kids’ would call, a ‘hot take’[1] on the European Parliament’s Industry, Research, Telecoms and Energy Committee’s workshop on Brexit and Industry and Space Policy Workshop held this afternoon.[2] There honestly wasn’t really anything new for anyone who’s been paying attention to Brexit for the past two years, and the […]
Read more "Brexit and Space, Again…"Recently US Vice President Mike Pence reaffirmed the Trump Administration’s intention to establish a United States ‘space force’.[1] This has garnered a range of reactions, though I’m not sure that I’ve seen anyone who thinks a new branch of service itself is a good idea. I will discuss some of the legal aspects of military […]
Read more "United States Space Force: Some Thoughts"