When you watched the dwell video of billionaire Jason Isaacman popping his head out of a SpaceX spacecraft (see “Polaris Dawn mission is one giant leap for private space exploration”), your first thought most likely wasn’t “who gets sued if something goes wrong?” – however as non-public spaceflight grows, questions like these have to be addressed.
Worldwide house regulation is a patchwork of treaties courting again to the house race, most significantly the Outer House Treaty of 1967. One key tenet of that is that solely states will be chargeable for exercise in house, even that of “non-governmental entities” like SpaceX. As a result of Isaacman and his crew launched from the Kennedy House Centre in Florida, which means the buck stops with the US authorities.
However the US authorities has discovered methods to go that buck. Whereas the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has strict guidelines and rules for business air journey, business spaceflight has at all times been given a lighter contact, most just lately by the SPACE Act of 2015. That regulation prolonged a “learning period” that prohibits the FAA from issuing rules associated to the security of astronauts on non-public spaceflights. In different phrases, any security issues Isaacman might have had have been hashed out between him and SpaceX.
We might quickly see authorized readability on who’s chargeable for non-public astronauts
This studying interval is because of expire on 1 January 2025, so we might quickly see authorized readability on who’s chargeable for non-public astronauts, however this isn’t the one space of house laws that wants consideration. Astronomers are more and more involved in regards to the variety of satellites in orbit, probably ruining their observations (see “Astronomers worried by launch of five new super-bright satellites”). Elon Musk’s SpaceX is once more an enormous participant right here, controlling two thirds of energetic satellites – and there are at present no rules that stop him from launching as many as he pleases.
So what subsequent? As coverage researcher Thomas Hale says (see “A Declaration on Future Generations could bring the changes we need”), our political methods aren’t designed to unravel “long problems”, they usually don’t get for much longer than taming the ultimate frontier. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t strive, nonetheless – and a refresh of the ageing Outer House Treaty to assist sort out these extra fashionable points can be very welcome.
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