If you watched the live video of billionaire Jason Isaacman popping his head out of a SpaceX spacecraft (see 鈥淧olaris Dawn mission is one giant leap for private space exploration鈥�), your first thought probably wasn鈥檛 鈥渨ho gets sued if something goes wrong?鈥� 鈥� but as private spaceflight grows, questions like these must be addressed.
International space law is a patchwork of treaties dating back to the space race, most importantly the Outer Space Treaty of 1967. One key tenet of this is that only states can be responsible for activity in space, even that of 鈥渘on-governmental entities鈥� like SpaceX. Because Isaacman and his crew launched from the Kennedy Space Centre in Florida, that means the buck stops with the US government.
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But the US government has found ways to pass that buck. While the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has strict rules and regulations for commercial air travel, commercial spaceflight has always been given a lighter touch, most recently by the SPACE Act of 2015. That law extended a 鈥渓earning period鈥� that prohibits the FAA from issuing regulations related to the safety of astronauts on private spaceflights. In other words, any safety concerns Isaacman may have had were hashed out between him and SpaceX.
We may soon see legal clarity on who is responsible for private astronauts
This learning period is due to expire on 1 January 2025, so we could soon see legal clarity on who is responsible for private astronauts, but this isn鈥檛 the only area of space legislation that needs attention. Astronomers are , potentially ruining their observations (see 鈥淎stronomers worried by launch of five new super-bright satellites鈥�). Elon Musk鈥檚 SpaceX is again a big player here, controlling two thirds of active satellites 鈥� and there are currently no regulations that prevent him from launching as many as he pleases.
So what next? As policy researcher Thomas Hale says (see 鈥淎 Declaration on Future Generations could bring the changes we need鈥�), our political systems aren鈥檛 designed to solve 鈥渓ong problems鈥�, and they don鈥檛 get much longer than taming the final frontier. That isn鈥檛 to say we shouldn鈥檛 try, however 鈥� and a refresh of the ageing Outer Space Treaty to help tackle these more modern issues would be very welcome.
