Policy and Law

By John B. Sheldon The heads of the space agencies from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada, and the European Space Agency (ESA) are scheduled to meet on 9 June 2020 via video conference in order to discuss cooperation on lunar exploration and the International Space Station (ISS). The meeting …

By Ken Hodgkins The COVID 19 pandemic has ripped apart all sectors of the world’s societal fabric and rendered economies to a state of paralysis. Multilateral space diplomacy has not been immune to this chaos. This year for the first time the Legal Subcommittee of the UN Committee on the …

In this week’s Space Cafe Web Talk Dr. Raji Rajagopalan discussed how India’s approach to outer space has changed over the last decade and how it is now driven increasingly by national security concerns. Dr. Rajagopalan also addressed a range of other significant topics, including India’s controversial ASAT test, her …

In separate media appearances last week, Russian and Chinese diplomatic and military officials have criticised US – and allied – military space programmes and ambitions. In an interview with Russian TV news channel Zvezda TV Anatoly Antonov, Russian ambassador to the United States, said that the United States and its …

Chinese officials have unveiled details of, and launch timeline for, its Tiangong space station now that the Long March 5B launch vehicle has been successfully launched and China’s crewed capsule has been tested. According to Chinese news media, the Tiangong space station will be completed by the end of 2022 …

Dmitry Rogozin, the head of the Russian state space corporation Roscosmos, has said that Russia is designing a new “orbital” station where crews will build deep space probes to explore the Solar System. One concept for Russia’s orbital station seems to centre on a crewed space station in low-Earth orbit …

By John B Sheldon Russia and China are currently in talks to pool their resources for joint lunar operations, according to several Russian and international news media sources. The two countries are believed to have created a bilateral working group to draw up plans for a shared base on the …

By Dr. Deganit Paikowsky Last week, NASA released “The Artemis Accords: Principles for a Safe, Peaceful and Prosperous Future.” The aim of the Artemis program, according to NASA, is to “[L]and the first woman and the next man on the Moon by 2024, heralding in a new era for space …

After celebrating the 50th anniversary of the European space cooperation in 2014, ESA now marks 45 years since the signing of the Convention for the creation of a single European Space Agency on 30 May 1975. The idea of building an independent space capability in Europe dated back to the early …

The Russian state space corporation Roscosmos is to develop a low-Earth orbit (LEO) space surveillance satellite that will help monitor space debris and should be launched by 2027, according to a senior Roscosmos official in remarks to the TASS news agency on 28 May 2020. The satellite will be part …