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 […]
Read more "UK Space Industry Bill"Space wasn’t on the agenda during the general election (not a surprise really) and even science and technology didn’t get much of a look in. However, Labour did promise to spend more on general R&D and to seek to retain access to EU Science programmes such as Horizon 2020. Labour also pledged to remain members […]
Read more "Spexit: UK General Election 2017, Brexit and the UK Space Sector"Last week I attended the UK Space Conference in Manchester. The UK Space Conference is a biannual event that brings together the UK space sector (industry, academia, government etc). It has been growing consistently and this year there were approximately 1200 delegates. The conference also features a public exhibition that was also well attended (apparently […]
Read more "UK Space Conference 2017"The Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology recently conducted an enquiry into the UK Draft Spaceflight Bill[1] and have now published a report on the subject. Unfortunately, this review process, which usually takes three to four months has been interrupted by the surprise general election called by Prime Minister Theresa May, meaning the […]
Read more "Commons Science and Technology Select Committee Review of UK Draft Spaceflight Bill"Last Wednesday US Senator Ted Cruz, a man who is quite clearly a space enthusiast, chaired a hearing on “Reopening the American Frontier: Reducing Regulatory Barriers and Expanding American Free Enterprise in Space.” The full hearing can be seen here. It is an interesting premise and Senator Cruz indicated that this will be the start […]
Read more "“Reopening the American Frontier”"I spent the past week in a windowless room in Vienna, and had a really interesting and enjoyable time. I went as part of the SGAC delegation to the UN Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) Legal Subcommittee (LSC). This was my third LSC, although my first as co-lead of the SGAC […]
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