Policy and Law

The Institute of Air and Space Law at McGill University is invigorating its work on the McGill Encyclopedia of International Space Law (MESIL), the university said. The McGill Encyclopedia was first announced in November 2020. Its aim is to be the go-to authoritative, peer-reviewed and reliable online resource on international space law. 

Space4Impact, EPFL’s Space Center eSpace, E2MC Ventures, and Space Innovation joined forces to launch an online course on the New Space Economy, hosted on edX, Space4Impact announced. The program is already available as a free EPFLx course.  There are over 30 video lectures accessible for those who want to learn.

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening caught up with Emmanuelle David, the Executive Manager of EPFL Space Center (eSpace) and Dr Minoo Rathnasabapathy, a Research Engineer within the Space Enabled Research Group at the MIT Media Lab.

Romania became the 16th nation to sign the Artemis Accords for cooperation in space exploration. Marius-Ioan Piso, President and CEO of the Romanian Space Agency, signed the document on behalf of the country in Bucharest. The NASA-led Artemis Accords are a set of non-binding commitments, based on the Outer Space Treaty of 1967.

On 23 February 2022, Niklas Nienaß, Member of the European Parliament for the Greens/EFA rolled out an initiative for setting a coherent space legislation in Europe. Based on a study of five independent experts, coordinated by Kai-Uwe Schrogl with Irmgard Marboe, Jean-Francois Mayence, Lucien Rapp and Jenni Tapio (see their report Towards European Legislation for Space Activities),

During this week’s Space Café, SpaceWatch.Global Publisher Torsten Kriening had the opportunity chance to speak with Dr Anna Christmann – a German politician and Coordinator for Aerospace Policy at the German Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Climate Action, serving under the country’s new Chancellor, Olaf Scholz. Dr Christmann previously studied at the Universities of Heidelberg and Bern,

In this Space Café Radio, Space Cafe Italy Host Dr. Emma Gatti and Space Cafe Benelux Host Chiara Moenter spoke with Dr. Andreas Wittmer, Managing Director of the Center for Aviation Competence at the University of St. Gallen, Switzerland about the upcoming Space for Business course and the need for more and better education in the space sector.

Specialists from industry-led group, Space Scotland, are jointly working on a roadmap focusing on environmental issues regarding space. Space-focused strategic communications and market intelligence provider, AstroAgency, and research and strategy consultancy, Optimat, will develop the roadmap on behalf of Space Scotland’s Environmental Task Force with the backing of the Scottish Government.

European leaders confirmed their ambitious plans to work closely together to accelerate Europe as a world leader in space during the 2022 Space Summit held in Toulouse, ESA reported. ESA, the EU and their member States will join forces to utilise the potential of space and to tackle urgent societal, economic and security challenges.

In this session of Space Cafè “Moriba’s Vox Populi 09” Dr. Moriba Jah talked about space environmentalism, thoughts on the movie “Don’t Look Up” – its potential for outreach while also showing some scientific inaccuracies and what it will take for humanity to take action with