Policy and Law

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and the European Space Policy Institute, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs No. 17: ‘Next Steps to the Moon: What Role for Europe? ’, originally published in November 2017.

Space activities within the United Nations Member States are growing apace and the amount of space faring nations is increasing. Enabling these countries to find their path to space is a key part of the work of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) which works to promote ‘international cooperation in the peaceful use and exploration of space science and technology for sustainable economic and social development’. The Office is on hand to offer help to Members that wish to establish legal and regulatory frameworks to enable them to become active in the space arena.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence (DNI), Dan Coats, along with the heads of the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), National Security Agency (NSA), Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA), and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency (NGA), gave testimony to the U.S. Senate's Select Committee on Intelligence about the Office of the DNI's latest Worldwide Threat Assessment of the U.S. Intelligence Community on 29 January 2019

Russia is preparing a national concept for Moon exploration by March 2019, according to the head of Roscosmos, Dmitry Rogozin. This news comes after the U.S. national space agency, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), put forward its Lunar Gateway project which will see the agency construct a gateway to act as a "single stepping off point in architecture for human cislunar operations, lunar surface operations and missions to Mars."

Iran’s ICT Minister, Mohammad Javad Azari Jahromi, and his Iraqi counterpart have called for broadening joint cooperation in space and information technology (IT) after a meeting on 22 January 2019.

China has agreed to grant U.S.$72 million for the EgyptSat-2 Earth observation satellite programme under a contract signed on 21 January 2019.

Some unnamed European Union member states are discussing the possibility of creating a European space force according to Elzbieta Bienkowska, the European Commissioner for Internal Market, Industry, and Entrepreneurship and who is also in charge of EU space policy.

Didier Reynders, Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Defence of the Kingdom of Belgium, and Etienne Schneider, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, signed a joint declaration at the Palais d'Egmont in Brussels on 23 January 2019 in which the two countries commit to collaborate on the development of an international framework for the exploration and utilisation of space resources.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and the European Space Policy Institute, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and briefs. This is ESPI Briefs No. 21: ‘On the importance of narratives in outer space ’, originally published in March 2018.

In a Washington, DC, speech, Japanese Defence Minister Takeshi Iwaya outlines his country's new National Defense Program Guidelines (NDPG) and Mid-Term Defense Plan (MTDP) that included new Japanese positions on national security space that require close cooperation with its American ally.