![space station space station](https://spacestationguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/ISS.jpg)
In accordance with the Outer Space Treaty, the ESA’s safety certification would need some form of concurrence by the Russians, and most probably by the other ISS partners’ agencies too. The ESA is the representative space agency (also) of the German government in the ISS program. The rule in aviation and the latest trend in shipping (to fight terrorism) are to ensure a genuine link between “ship and flag”.Īpplication of the Outer Space Treaty to the case, for example, of an ISS commercial payload, developed by a German company to be flown on the Russian segment, appears to require the primary involvement of the European Space Agency (ESA) in the safety certification process. applicable intellectual property law) but will not modify the responsibility and liability of the State of which the element’s owner (person or company) is a national. This will affect the legal status of the element (e.g. In the case of a privately owned element of the ISS, the owner may decide to register the element on the registry of any ISS Partner State (similarly to the practice for ships).
#Space station registration
For elements of the ISS developed by space agencies, the State jurisdiction will be formalized by registration of each element on the relevant national registry and notification to the UN Secretary General, in accordance with the Registration Convention. Furthermore, in the case of activities that could “cause potentially harmful interference with activities of other States”, a State, under article IX of the Outer Space Treaty, must “undertake appropriate international consultation before proceeding with any such activity”.įinally, the Registration Convention establishes the principle that “A State … on whose registry an object launched into space is carried shall retain jurisdiction and control over such object and over any personnel thereof, while in outer space …”. The terms “authorization” and “continuing supervision”, therefore, appear to require a certain minimum of licensing and enforced adherence to government-imposed regulations. In contrast, in space, governments have both supervisory and financial responsibility.Īccording to some interpretations, Article VI would prohibit strictly private, unregulated activity in space. States exercise a supervisory role (responsibility) with respect to ships and planes owned by the private sector but do not accept the financial risk (liability) for the actions of these assets. The activities of non-governmental entities in outer space … shall require authorization and continuing supervision by the appropriate State party to the Treaty”.ĭifferent from both maritime and air law, the UN space treaties make countries both “responsible” and “liable” for the space activities of their nationals (persons, companies, etc.). The compromise was incorporated in article VI of the Outer Space Treaty as follows: “ States … shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space … whether such activities are carried on by government agencies or by non-governmental entities, and for assuring that national activities are carried out in conformity with … Treaty. The USA then proposed a compromise solution, accepted by the Russians, according to which each country should bear the responsibility for the activities of its nationals in space. The USSR opposed this idea, up to the point that the draft they proposed included the following statement: “ All activities of any kind pertaining to the exploration of outer space shall be carried out solely and exclusively by the State …”. The USA wanted to leave the door open to private sector involvement in future space exploitation. During the drafting of the Outer Space Treaty, there was some initial disagreement regarding the legal status of private sector space activities. It is useful to examine some fundamental principles that have relevance to safety responsibilities and roles, in particular with reference to private or commercial activities in space.
![space station space station](https://i.loli.net/2020/06/19/ypVSP32Go5bCQUk.jpg)
![space station space station](https://static01.nyt.com/images/2020/10/31/science/31SCI-ISS-FEATURE13/31SCI-ISS-FEATURE13-videoSixteenByNine3000.jpg)