Guide · Aviation

Commercial Space Law: A Comprehensive Guide to Launch Licensing, Liability, and Spectrum

51 U.S.C. § 51303

Type
Guide
Jurisdiction
National
Date
2024-06-26
Topic
Aviation

A complete practitioner's treatment of commercial space law for launch providers, satellite operators, spaceports, investors, and their counsel. Parts I through III establish the international framework: the Outer Space Treaty and its companion conventions, the Article VI obligation that is the source of every domestic licensing regime, and the two liability regimes of the 1972 Convention with the registration and jurisdiction rules that accompany them. Part IV addresses space resources, the Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act, and the Artemis Accords. Parts V through IX cover the American regulatory stack in operational detail: FAA launch, reentry, and site licensing under Part 450 with financial responsibility and cross-waivers, environmental review, FCC spectrum and orbital debris rules with ITU coordination, NOAA remote sensing licensing, and export control across the ITAR and EAR boundary. Parts X through XIII cover human spaceflight and the informed consent regime, orbital debris and space traffic management, the mission authorization gap for on-orbit activities, and the contracts and insurance that actually allocate risk. Part XIV covers government contracting and financing, and Part XV is the verification list.

Commercial Space Law: A Comprehensive Guide to Launch Licensing, Liability, and Spectrum

Aviation > Space Law | Published 26 June 2024 - Updated 10 February 2026 | UpLaw - uplaw.us

In brief. A state is internationally responsible for its nationals' activities in outer space and must authorize and supervise them. Every licensing regime in this guide exists because of that one treaty sentence. Master the stack — FAA, FCC, NOAA, State/Commerce — and know where it stops, because what happens between launch and reentry is largely unlegislated.

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