by Alyson C. Decker

As of right now, there are almost 13,000 active satellites orbiting Earth. Back in 2022, that number was closer to 5,000. This exponential expansion is due, primarily, to the growth of private mega-constellations, like SpaceX’s Starlink. See TOI Science Desk, Top 10 Nations with the Most Satellites in Space, Times of India (July 5, 2025). And, in addition to functional satellites, there are over 30,000 pieces of large enough to be trackable space objects and inactive satellites orbiting our planet. See Space-Track.org, www.space-track.org (last visited Nov. 18, 2025).

This proliferation of satellites and space debris is fueled, in part, by the fact that there are essentially no international rules limiting space pollution or the launching of most space objects. See Aaron C. Boley & Michael Byers, Satellite Mega-Constellations Create Risks in Low Earth Orbit, the Atmosphere and on Earth, 11 Sci. Reps. 10642 (2021). And the reason for this lack of international regulation is because space is celestia liberum; it belongs to no one and no one has “control” over it. See Alyson C. Decker, Private Entities as Actors in Regional Space Governance Organizations, Presentation at ASCEND 2023, Am. Inst. of Aeronautics and Astronautics (Oct. 17, 2023), https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/6.2023-4600. This is clearly set out in the foundational document of all international space law, the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (the “Outer Space Treaty”), which “established outer space as a commons.” Lawrence D. Roberts, Addressing the Problem of Orbital Space Debris: Combining International Regulatory and Liability Regimes, 15 B.C. Int’l & Compar. L. Rev. 51, 53, 58-59, 69 (1992). Thus, individual nations create the rules that govern the private actors within their borders and are incentivized under a “first come, first claimed” orbital system to maintain a dominant position in space by permitting more launches. See Alyson C. Decker, 73rd International Astronautical Congress (IAC), Preserving Unspoiled Space for Future Generations, Int’l Astronautical Fed’n (Sep. 18, 2022).

Why does this matter? Well, like the old adage says, what goes up must come down. The primary method for dealing with damaged and end of life satellites, as well as used rocket stages and spacecraft components, especially those in Lower Earth Orbit, is by deorbiting them. Which means they are allowed to drop down into the Earth’s atmosphere and, ideally, fully burn up upon re-entry. Basically, a giant natural incinerator. But not everything that enters the Earth’s atmosphere burns up completely.

Larger debris often is not fully destroyed on re-entry, and while efforts are made to try and control re-entry to ensure debris lands over unpopulated areas, the results remain somewhat unpredictable. In fact, we have seen a recent increase in space debris making landfall. In March of last year, a piece of a discarded battery system from the International Space Station (ISS) crashed into a house in Florida. While no one was injured, there was significant property damage. Over the past year, debris from Starlink satellites has landed on multiple farms in Canada. And, if we continue forward with all the planned mega-constellations, there is a 10% chance that space debris will cause one or more deaths within the next decade. See Margaret Osborne, There Is a 10 Percent Chance Someone Will Die From Falling Rocket Debris in the Next Decade, Smithsonian Mag. (July 13, 2022).

Which leaves us with the question: Who is liable when one is injured by space debris? Luckily, we have part of the answer in the fifty-plus-year-old Convention on the International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (the “Liability Convention”). Article II of the Liability Convention clearly states that “[a] launching State shall be absolutely liable to pay compensation for damage caused by its space object on the surface of the earth or to aircraft in flight.” This means the focus is not necessarily on who built, owns, or controlled the space object, but rather on what country the object was launched from and what “State” procured the launch. And joint liability exists when two or more countries were involved in the launching. A prime example would be a satellite funded and owned by one State, or one of its “citizens,” that does not have launch capabilities, which is then launched from a second State, like the United States, that does have launch capabilities.

However, things quickly get complicated. To start with, the Liability Convention does “not apply to damage caused by a space object of a launching State to . . . Nationals of that launching State.” Thus, in the scenario of the Florida family whose house was damaged by space debris originally launched by NASA to the ISS, they could not make a claim under the Liability Convention and NASA, or rather the United States was not automatically absolutely liable for the property loss. See Anna Hedgepath, Mica Nguyen Worthy Submits First-of-its-Kind Claim to NASA Seeking Recovery From Damages Sustained from Space Debris, Cranfill Sumner LLP (June 21, 2024). And this would be the same result for similar damage caused by space debris from a privately owned space object launched from American soil, because liability under the Liability Convention is determined based solely on who the “launching” State is.

While we know a Federal Torts Claim Act (FTCA) submission was made on behalf of the Florida family whose house was damaged, the results of that litigation have not been publicized. Given absolute liability does not apply in this situation, a successful claimant has to prove negligence. But did NASA act negligently? There’s a strong argument that NASA did act reasonably as the agency followed industry standards for the deorbiting of space junk, it was believed at the time that all of the debris would be incinerated, and the vast majority of the debris in question did in fact burn up on re-entry or fell in unpopulated areas over a period of over three years. See Jackie Wattles, NASA Says It Expected Space Station Garbage to Burn Up. The Debris Smashed into a Florida Home Instead, CNN (Apr. 24, 2024), https://www.cnn.com/2024/04/16/world/space-junk-floridahome-crash-scn.

To further complicate issues, as with most of these foundational international space law treaties, private actors simply do not exist. It is solely States that are responsible for the actions of private companies in space. See David Lambach & Luca Wesel, Tackling the Space Debris Problem: A Global Commons Perspective, Proceedings of the 8th European Conf. on Space Debris, ESA Space Debris Off. (May 2021). Thus, in that case where parts from Starlink satellites made impact in Canada, although SpaceX did send someone out to retrieve the pieces and paid the farmers a nominal amount of money for their inconvenience, in truth, SpaceX was not required to do any such thing. It chose to do so solely because it wanted its intellectual property back. Had the debris impacts actually caused significant damage, the United States would have had absolute liability for the injuries, not SpaceX, because the United States was the launching State and the damage would have been incurred by nationals of a different State.

But let’s say the Liability Convention applies: how would one bring such a claim? Under the convention, individuals cannot bring claims against the liable State. Pursuant to Article VII, only States can bring such claims. Additionally, any such claims are to be, at least initially, sorted out through “diplomatic channels.” Thus, one could imagine a scenario where Canada might not want to bring a claim for one person’s property damage against the United States for space debris owned by a private actor if the result would be a messy diplomatic situation.

In short, right now, much of space law is still up in the air. And to date, the only actual “claim” made under the Liability Convention occurred in 1978 when a Soviet satellite scattered radioactive debris all over Canada, which, interestingly, is why we do not currently have many nuclear powered satellites. See generally Joseph A. Burke, Damage Caused by Space Objects: Definition and Determination of Damages After the Cosmos 954 Incident, 8 Fordham Int’l L.J. 255 (1984). That claim was resolved, diplomatically, for several million dollars, but how can individuals protect themselves and recover for injuries caused by space debris? Do we need to wait for a true tragedy to figure out which laws apply or should our legislators act now and create a new federally preemptive legal framework for how these types of cases will be handled when the Liability Convention does not control? Given the current state of politics and our government’s preference to encourage the further development of the private aerospace industry, that seems unlikely. But what is clear is that if the federal government does not act soon, states looking to woo aerospace companies to them are going to pass limitation of liability laws, similar to what Florida has already tried to do with eliminating liability for Florida-launched human space flights. And, that will only serve to create more uncertainty and more litigation. See Alyson C. Decker, Liability, Commercial Human Spaceflight, and Florida, LinkedIn (July 10, 2023), https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/liability-commercial-human-spaceflightflorida-alyson-claire-law/.

Alyson C. Decker is Of Counsel with Taylor Anderson LLP. She has experience as a litigator, general counsel, space attorney, mediator, board member, consultant, public speaker, and an employment law guru. Alyson can be reached at adecker@talawfirm.com.