For those who watched the stay 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 in all probability wasn’t “who gets sued if something goes wrong?” – however as personal spaceflight grows, questions like these should be addressed.
Worldwide area legislation is a patchwork of treaties courting again to the area race, most significantly the Outer House Treaty of 1967. One key tenet of that is that solely states could be accountable for exercise in area, even that of “non-governmental entities” like SpaceX. As a result of Isaacman and his crew launched from the Kennedy House Centre in Florida, meaning 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 laws 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 legislation prolonged a “learning period” that prohibits the FAA from issuing laws associated to the security of astronauts on personal spaceflights. In different phrases, any security considerations Isaacman might have had have been hashed out between him and SpaceX.
We might quickly see authorized readability on who’s accountable for personal astronauts
This studying interval is because of expire on 1 January 2025, so we might quickly see authorized readability on who’s accountable for personal astronauts, however this isn’t the one space of area laws that wants consideration. Astronomers are more and more involved concerning 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 a giant participant right here, controlling two thirds of energetic satellites – and there are at the moment no laws that forestall 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 programs aren’t designed to resolve “long problems”, they usually don’t get for much longer than taming the ultimate frontier. That isn’t to say we shouldn’t attempt, nonetheless – and a refresh of the ageing Outer House Treaty to assist deal with these extra trendy points can be very welcome.
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