by Mary-Christine Sungaila
Outer Space is no longer the province of a few spacefaring countries. Soon it will be a place where private companies, a myriad of governments, space tourists, scientists, nonprofits, and academic institutions operate alongside each other, sometimes through public-private partnerships. Moreover, the United States, China, and India have pledged to land astronauts on the Moon and establish lunar bases and space stations by the 2030s. Moon bases and settlements, space mining, and a cislunar economy are no longer the stuff of science fiction.
All of this impending activity makes it a good time to ask: Which laws govern these interactions? And what should the rules be for new activities like in-space manufacturing or space mining?
This article provides an overview of some of the interlocking international and domestic obligations governing space activities and highlights some of the developing areas and open questions of space law.
The International Law Framework Since the original space actors were States, the core of space law is international. And the Magna Carta or Constitution of space law is the widely-adopted Outer Space Treaty of 1967 (OST), now ratified by 116 countries and signed by 22 more. The OST was a response to the Cold War Space Race between the United States and the Soviet Union and was meant to prevent nuclear weapons from being placed in space. But it also lays out open-textured principles that shape and constrain many more space activities beyond that.
The OST sets forth the following principles: Freedom of exploration and use (OST Article I). Outer Space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, shall be freely explored and used, particularly for scientific purposes, without discrimination and with “free access to all areas of celestial bodies.” Exploration and use also shall be carried out for the benefit of all countries and shall be the “province of all mankind.”
Nonappropriation (Article II). Countries cannot claim ownership of Outer Space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies. Outer Space is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, use, occupation, or any other means. This also means that it is beyond the jurisdiction of national courts (with perhaps the exception of space objects).
Incorporation of other international law (Article III). Space law is a specialized area of international law. The use and exploration of Outer Space is governed both by space law and other international law “in the interest of maintaining international peace and security and promoting international cooperation and understanding.”
Peaceful use of Space (Article IV). State parties to the OST agree “not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, [to] install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner.” More broadly, the Moon and other celestial bodies shall be used by all State parties “exclusively for peaceful purposes.” Military bases on the Moon or celestial bodies are forbidden, except to the extent they are necessary for peaceful purposes or scientific exploration.
Astronaut assistance (Article V). State parties to the treaty are required to regard astronauts as “envoys of mankind” and provide them “all possible assistance” in the event of accident, distress, or emergency landing. If an astronaut lands in the territory of another State party, the astronaut shall be “safely and promptly returned” to the state of registry of the astronaut’s space vehicle. States must report any phenomena in Outer Space potentially dangerous to an astronaut’s life or health to the Secretary General of the United Nations.
State responsibility for national activities and the obligation to authorize and continuously supervise private actors (Article VI). State parties to the Treaty and international organizations bear responsibility for national activities in Outer Space and for assuring that such activities comply with Treaty obligations, whether those activities are performed by governmental agencies or nongovernmental entities. States are required to authorize and provide continuing supervision of nongovernmental actors, which is generally done through State licensing and oversight regimes under domestic law.
State liability (Article VII). A launching State, or one that “procures the launching” of an object into Outer Space, and each State from whose territory or facility an object is launched, is internationally liable for damage by that object or its component parts to another State party, its people or its “juridical persons” on the Earth, in air space or Outer Space, including on the Moon and other celestial bodies.
Jurisdiction and control of space objects (Article VIII). A State that has launched an object into space and which has registered that object as its own shall maintain jurisdiction and control over the object and any personnel aboard that object while it is in Outer Space or on a celestial body. Objects found outside the territory of the State shall be returned to the State that registered them. The UN Office of Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) maintains the registry.
Due regard (Article IX). In their exploration and use of Outer Space, State parties shall be guided by the principle of cooperation and mutual assistance and “shall conduct all their activities” “with due regard to the corresponding interests of all other States Parties to the Treaty.” States must also avoid “harmful contamination” of the Moon and other celestial bodies as a result of their exploration and use of space, as well as adverse changes in the Earth environment from the introduction of extraterrestrial matter.
Transparency and information sharing (Articles X, XI, XII). In the spirit of international cooperation, State parties may allow observation of the launch of space objects and all stations, installations, or equipment on the Moon or other celestial bodies “shall be open to the representatives of other State Parties to the Treaty on a basis of reciprocity.” State parties also agree to inform the U.N. Secretary General, the general public, and the international scientific community of the nature, conduct, and location of their activities in Outer Space “to the greatest extent feasible or practical.”
There are three other widely agreed upon treaties that elaborate on provisions in the OST, and one less accepted treaty (the Moon Agreement). The Rescue and Return Agreement elaborates on the astronaut assistance provision of the OST and primarily lays out the requirements for dealing with astronauts and space objects who wind up in the territory of another State. The Registration Convention requires States to create national registries of space objects and communication of that registry to the United Nations, which will in turn place the object on an international registry.
The Liability Convention lays out a multi-tiered liability regime for damage caused by one space object to another and by a space object to Earth or aircraft. The Convention also provides for a Claims Commission to resolve liability disputes that cannot be settled diplomatically. The Commission has never been used. And only one claim—one by Canada arising from radioactive debris falling from a Russian space object—has ever been made; it was settled before a Commission to hear the dispute could be constituted.
The Moon Agreement, ratified by only a small portion of countries, sets forth rules for activities on the Moon and other celestial bodies—including Article 11, which provides that natural resources on the Moon shall not become the property of any State, nongovernmental entity, or person.
After the Cold War flurry of treaties governing space activity, international rulemaking has been achieved through soft law guidelines and principles. Among these are the Remote Sensing Principles, Broadcasting Principles, Nuclear Power Sources Principles, Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines, and the Long Term Sustainability Guidelines developed through the UN Committee in the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS).
United States Commercial Space Laws & Policies. Article VI of the OST requires States to authorize and provide continuing supervision of their nongovernmental actors, which include commercial space companies. It also makes the States internationally responsible to other States for the conduct of its nongovernmental actors. From these international obligations have sprung an array of federal licensing laws, although none yet cover human commercial spaceflight, space mining, or other novel space activities.
The Commercial Space Launch Act of 1984 established the regulatory framework for commercial space launches and reentries. The Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015 allowed companies to claim ownership of resources extracted from space. And the Land Remote-Sensing Commercialization Act allowed private companies to engage in remote-sensing activities.
A U.S. citizen or commercial launch operator planning to launch a rocket anywhere in the world must obtain authorization and a license for launch and reentry from the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation (AST). Once licensed, companies must also submit to governmental access and monitoring to ensure compliance as well as monitoring of orbital debris guideline compliance.
Collecting images of Earth, or having the capability to do so, raises national security concerns. A U.S. commercial space company that wants to engage in remote sensing activities must be authorized and licensed to do so by NOAA Commercial Remote Sensing Regulatory Affairs.
Any space object needs to communicate with Earth, and it needs radiofrequency spectrum to do that. Satellites, for example, use radiofrequency spectrum to communicate with other satellites and to receive ground station signals. To avoid harmful interference, spectrum is allocated, coordinated, and regulated in the United States by the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) and at the international level by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU).
Space companies also need to comply with export controls or face criminal prosecution or fines. ITAR regulates defense items, while the EAR regulates the commercial use and transfer of technology and data which other countries or parties could acquire for military use.
United States Space Policy, implemented through White House Executive Orders and the National Space Policy Council, further guides Congress. For example, United States space policy calls for creating a regulatory environment that promotes and fosters innovation, given the recognized importance of the commercial space sector to future space exploration and national security. Under President Biden, the White House also proposed that regulation of novel space activities be consolidated under the Department of Space Commerce, rather than splintered across agencies, a proposal Congress echoed in draft legislation.
Against this mosaic of international and national laws, there remain many open questions, particularly as to novel space activities. Here are just a few of these hot topics being debated right now.
Orbital Debris and Space Sustainability Space junk is a growing concern. There are a lot of satellites in Lower Earth Orbit (LEO) and more are launched every day, including constellations of smaller satellites like those launched by SpaceX. Even the tiniest dislodged piece of a space object can damage or destroy another space object. The United States’ and other nations’ laws build into their licensing regimes a deorbiting and orbital debris plan. Companies like Astroscale have built their business around extending the life of satellites, preventing orbital debris, and reducing collisions.
But because orbital debris threatens all space actors, and interferes with access to space, work continues to refine the approaches to securing access to space for this generation and future generations.
Space Resource Utilization (Space Mining) The OST prohibits national appropriation of celestial bodies. Does this include space resources? And, once extracted, must these resources be shared with the international community? The United States, as well as Luxembourg and Japan in their national space laws, have asserted that those who mine space resources may keep what they extract without running afoul of the non-appropriation provisions of the OST. The Artemis Accords, a Declaration of Principles signed by sixty countries that collaborate with the United States and NASA on Moon exploration, have also acknowledged the propriety of space mining companies keeping the resources they extract.
The UN COPUOS has a new Working Group on Space Resources, which offered a first set of draft principles at the Legal Subcommittee meeting in Vienna in May 2025. Some provisions of the draft Principles recognize the use of temporary safety zones to allow orderly access to areas on the Moon, show due regard for the activities of others, and protect and preserve cultural heritage. These draft Principles were preceded by a non-UN international proposal, the Hague Institute’s 2019 Building Blocks for the Development of an International Framework on Space Resource Activities. The Building Blocks recommended an adaptive governance framework for space resources and also provided for extracted resource rights that can be lawfully acquired through domestic legislation or bilateral or multilateral agreements.
Cultural Heritage Protection While the UN protects cultural heritage on Earth, there is no treaty that currently protects heritage in space. None of humanity’s firsts on the Moon—from Neil Armstrong’s bootprints to India’s Chandrayaan lander and China’s Chang’e lander—currently enjoy protection from destruction or interference under binding international law. The signatories to the Artemis Accords have agreed, however, to commit to heritage protection, and alternate language in the UN COPUOS draft Space Resources Principles recognizes the use of safety zones to protect space cultural heritage on the Moon from harm from space mining activities and the Moon dust and regolith that such activities will dislodge.
In-Space Assembly and Manufacturing (ISAM) As space sustainability becomes more of a concern, focus has turned to novel space activities like assembling and manufacturing objects in space. Such activity can extend the lifespan of satellites and refuel and repair spacecraft. Which regulations should apply to them, and, within the United States, which federal agency should be in charge of them?
Dark & Quiet Skies The increased activity and objects being launched into space have given rise to concerns about the need to maintain the darkness of Space for astronomy on Earth. Should the amount of satellite constellation launches, for example, be more limited? How should the right to free use and exploration of Space be balanced against scientific discovery of the heavens on Earth?
Interpreting the Outer Space Treaty Many provisions in the OST require refinement in light of new space activities and actors. What does “due regard” call for? What does “continuing supervision” require of States in their domestic regulation of commercial space companies—how much continuing oversight of their activities is required to comply with international law? The answer may either foster or impede the nascent commercial space industry.
Conflict Resolution What mechanisms should be adopted for dispute resolution in Outer Space? The focus in the OST is on consultation and resolution of conflicts through diplomacy. And the Liability Convention’s Claims Commission is available only to States.
Right now, at the UN level, the International Court of Justice can hear disputes between States, and the Permanent Court of Arbitration at the Hague can help resolve disputes involving more parties (with all parties’ agreement). Many commercial space contracts call for the use of private arbitration. But there remains a need for a public forum that can handle disputes between all types of actors and offer guidance on the interpretation and application of international treaties. In the absence of this, the United Arab Emirates has announced the creation of Space Courts, with judges schooled in space law, that can be used by any party anywhere in the world, not just people or entities based in the UAE.
These are just a few of the established frameworks and developing areas of space law which will play out over the next decade and beyond, as humanity becomes a spacefaring civilization.
Mary-Christine (MC) Sungaila, a partner in the Complex Appellate Litigation Group, teaches Space Law & Policy at LMU Loyola Law School in Los Angeles. An LLM candidate at the University of Mississippi’s Center for Air and Space Law, she has shared her thought leadership on space law at the annual UN Space Law Conference, National Space Society’s International Space Development Conference, and Space Beach Law Lab as well as in the Space Law Journal, SpaceNews, Beyond Earth Policy Review, and the National Law Journal.