Policy and Law

The International Astronautical Federation’s annual event, the International Astronautical Congress (IAC), has been at the centre of innovation for the space community for 70 years. As such the annual event plays an important role to allow space professionals and the young generation to disseminate their research and develop collaborations.

Established in 2017 as part of the implementation of the SpaceResources.lu initiative strategy, the core function of the Advisory Board on Space Resources is to support the government on topics related to the exploration and use of resources available in space. Facilitated and managed by the Luxembourg Space Agency, this advisory body comprises renowned international experts in the space industry.

by Nelly-Helen Neji Ebruka As often said, when men reached for the stars, lawyers reached for their books. After Yuri Gagarin’s historic space flight in 1957, the international community through the United Nations deemed it pertinent to agree on certain principles and rules to regulate outer space affairs. Space exploration undoubtedly brought new ideas in the development of various fields like science, medicine, media and communications, etc. and of course legal lacuna had to be filled.

On July 19, the UAE successfully launched the first Arab mission to Mars — plans for which were first announced in 2014.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and The Strategist, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles. This is “Towards a sovereign space capability for Australia’s defence″ by Malcolm Davis, originally published on 3 August 2020.

Signed on 4 August 2020 by the Minister of the Economy Franz Fayot, Chairman of the Board of LIST Jacques Lanners, and CEO of LIST Thomas Kallstenius, the agreement paves the way for cooperation between LSA and LIST to implement the national component of this initiative until the European Space Agency (ESA) joins the project in turn as a strategic partner as provided in the Memorandum of Cooperation in the field of Space Resources signed by Luxembourg and ESA (Space19 +) during the ESA meeting of the ministerial council in November 2019 in Seville.

In this week’s Space Cafè WebTalk, Christopher Johnson, Space Law Advisor at the Secure World Foundation talked about issues of developing the next phase of governance for space activities.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Project Plougshares, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. This is Part 2 of “Did Russia Test a Weapon in Space? What the question and the answer tell us about the security of outer space”, originally published 30 July 2020 in Ploughshares Spotlight, July 2020.

As part of the partnership between SpaceWatch.Global and Project Plougshares, we have been granted permission to publish selected articles and texts. This is Part 1 of “Did Russia Test a Weapon in Space? What the question and the answer tell us about the security of outer space”, originally published 30 July 2020 in Ploughshares Spotlight, July 2020.

The Austrian Space Forum (OeWF) announced the postponement of its international Mars analog mission “AMADEE-20”. The simulation of a crewed mission to the Red Planet was originally scheduled to take place later this year in October in Israel.