Who owns space?
- 9th Oct 2024
- Author: Jasneet Kaur
Imagine if everyone could launch their own rockets and head to the Moon for a quick space holiday. Sounds fun, right? But space would quickly become a very busy place. There would also be one big problem: Who chooses what the rules are in outer space?
Why do we need laws in space?
Just like we have rules at school and on the roads which keep everyone safe and everything fair, we also need rules in space. A law is an official rule that everyone agrees to follow. If someone doesn’t listen to the rules and breaks the law, it can lead to serious consequences.
In the 1950s, we started to launch the first rockets, and leaders around the world quickly realised they had to agree on some basic rules when sending things up to outer space. But how does this work? Space does not belong to any one country, so who decides what these rules are?
Who makes space laws?
Space law is a collaboration between many countries and international organisations and not just by one individual nation. Some of the leading people involved in space law are:
- The United Nations (UN): The UN focusses on creating and enforcing the laws.
- Countries: Countries both create their own space laws for within their borders and agree to bigger laws called treaties that are signed by many countries.
- Private companies: Companies such as SpaceX and Virgin Galactic must follow space laws when embarking on spaceflights.
The first law – The Outer Space Treaty
The Outer Space Treaty is the first law about space which was developed in 1967 by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) which is a department within the UN. The first nations to sign this law were the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union and as of 2024, 115 countries have agreed to the treaty.
The key principles of the Outer Space Treaty say that space is free for exploration by all, no nation can claim a part of outer space, and that space would be used for peaceful purposes only, not war.
This law seemed to keep everything in order for quite a few years, however fast forward to today and space has become very crowded. As of April 2024, there are over 9000 active satellites in orbit. Many private companies such as SpaceX are pioneering space travel with talks of developing whole cities on Mars! People have started to realise that the Outer Space Treaty is no longer be enough to keep order in outer space.
Instances where it went wrong…
On 29 April 2021, China launched the core module (the Tianhe) of their Tiangong space station into space. The 20-ton rocket that carried the core module fell back down towards Earth. Unfortunately this launch made the media with reports of negligence as it was one of the largest objects deliberately left to re-enter the Earth's atmosphere uncontrolled since the American Skylab space station in 1979.
The rocket roared around our planet with a whopping speed of 25,000 kilometres per hour and because of this, scientists struggled to predict where it would crash and land. Luckily, the pieces landed in the Indian Ocean on 9 May, and no one was harmed.
This occurrence posed the question: who would be liable if there were damages in another nation? Luckily, the Liability Convention was a law developed in 1972 that says the country that was responsible for the object must pay for the damages it causes.
Another major scandal involved the Apollo 15 astronauts who took around 400 unauthorised postal covers to the moon and returned them to Earth with plans of selling them for thousands of dollars. This incident was against NASA’s own rules which say that astronauts cannot use a mission for personal profit.
The consequences of their actions led to these astronauts never flying to outer space again. This event showed the importance of following the laws of a company even when in space.
A recent dilemma
One of the more recent set of space principles that was created is the Artemis Accords. Unlike the previous two examples mentioned above (which were both developed by the UN), the United States decided to develop these accords in preparation for NASA’s future Artemis missions which aims to return humans to the Moon and send astronauts to Mars. The guiding principles states that countries and companies are allowed to set up ‘’safety zones’’ on these celestial bodies without others interfering.
However, not everyone is happy with this, and this is reflected by the limited (43) signatures as of June 2024. Countries like Russia and China believe these non-binding requirements are encouraging division on the Moon as nations would be claiming areas just like with land here on Earth.
Finding a solution and the future of space law
It is important that we continue to develop space laws so we can prevent conflicts, keep astronauts protected and ensure valuable resources in space are being used correctly.
To avoid as much conflict as possible, countries are looking to set up more laws and updating some of the older ones to account for modern times. Many people believe independent companies should be allowed to have the freedom to explore space as long as they do not harm others. How can we find the perfect balance?
The growing concern of space debris and junk has started to be tackled by some nations like the UK who are the largest investor in space safety in the European Space Agency. Countries and organisations are creating new guidelines to prevent a catastrophe known as the Kessler syndrome, which is when pieces of space junk can cause a chain reaction creating more debris and leading to big problems for satellites and astronauts. Another interesting development is the potential of space tourism and starting commercial space travel for all humans. As well as mining the Moon and asteroids for valuable resources. All these newer situations will require their own laws to keep everything fair.
But what does the future of space law look like? New decisions and guidelines are being created as we speak. Space law is being written for future generations and the exciting space travel which lies ahead.
So, to answer the questions “who owns space?”, the answer is both no one and everyone! Although it is commonly agreed that we cannot claim space or any part of space as our own, it seems at present we are free to explore space as long as we do it safely and within regulations - though the goal is to have universal consensus on those standards.
Full references / credits
(Banner) Credit: Pavel Danilyuk (public domain) https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-shaking-hands-at-lawyers-office-8112168/
(1) Prospero rocket in the National Space Centre. Credit: ©National Space Centre
(2) The signing of the Outer Space Treaty in 1967. Credit: ITU (CC BY 2.0) https://www.flickr.com/photos/itupictures/16661050412
(3) A representation of the Chinese Tiangong space station with the Tianhe in the centre of the image. Credit: Shujianyang (CC BY-SA 4.0) https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/25/Chinese_Tiangong_Space_Station.jpg
(4) A close-up photo of a justice weight scale and a gavel. Credit: Sora Shimazaki (public domain) https://www.pexels.com/photo/judgement-scale-and-gavel-in-judge-office-5669602/
