Luxembourg revises space law to address Outer Space Treaty
Luxembourg has revised its proposed new space law in order to try to address the property right concerns posed by the Outer Space Treaty.
The legislation is patterned on the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015, which includes provisions that grant U.S. companies the rights to resources they extract from asteroids or other celestial bodies. One difference, Schneider said, will be that while the U.S. law requires companies to be based in the country, Luxembourg’s protections would cover companies regardless of their location. “We don’t really care where the money comes from,” he said.
The bill also creates a system for the authorization and continuing supervision of commercial space activities that are regulated by the country. The lack of similar policy in the United States for “non-traditional” commercial space activities like asteroid mining — required, many argue, in order to comply with Article 6 of the Outer Space Treaty — has been an issue debated in the last few years.
…Luxembourg is also in the process of creating a national space agency, Schneider said. The country is a member of the European Space Agency but has not previously had its own national agency. However, he said the agency will be structured differently than those in other countries. “This space agency will not be a copy of NASA or ESA, but it will be a space agency whose only focus on the commercial use of space resources,” he said. It will be set up a public-private partnership between the government and private funds.
I would say that the competition in space is definitely now heating up. These actions by Luxembourg might not solve the legal problems with the Outer Space Treaty, but they will certainly up the pressure on the world’s space-faring nations to face the issue.
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Robert has posted about Luxembourg’s interest in the space industry several times before, suggesting that she is leading up to just this type of spacefaring nation, right down to being its own venture capitalist for new companies in the space industry.
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/luxembourg-to-establish-space-property-rights/
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/luxembourg-to-invest-200-million-in-space-mining/
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/luxembourg-purchases-49-stake-in-planetary-resources/
http://behindtheblack.com/behind-the-black/points-of-information/luxembourg-establishes-its-own-legal-framework-for-asteroid-mining/
From the article: “[Deputy prime minister of Luxembourg] Schneider said he believed that this initiative will make the country a world leader in the space industry.”
Making Luxembourg a world leader in the space industry seems to have been their goal for the past year or so. It has been fun and enlightening to watch Luxembourg develop this industry within their country. If they do it right, they may eventually have more sovereign territory off world than on.
Go, Luxembourg!
Why should any country have sovereignty? The one good thing the OST does is prohibit that.
In practice, those that take possession will claim which is the exact right thing. No country would then have the right to tax (by any name) or regulate that property. If the property holders want to unite and form their own state that would be their business.
They would then regulate themselves and establish treaties with other countries.
Countries could of course ignore the OST and make their own claims (or claim they aren’t really making claims when in fact they are) but it would be better for humanity (and those countries) if they didn’t.
Space News has an interesting article:
http://spacenews.com/luxembourg-serious-about-mining-asteroids-prospecting-for-silicon-valley-partners/
“In contrast to similar legislation passed by the U.S. Congress in 2015, Luxembourg’s law does not only cover corporations if a majority of their shares are owned locally.”
If I read the various stories correctly, Luxembourg is willing to help any company that has any amount of operations in the country, not just be based there or be majority owned by Luxembourgers.
“Schneider hopes these discussions will lead to multilateral agreements and eventually prompt the United Nations to update the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which does not clearly address the question of whether companies can claim ownership of space resources.”
Luxembourg’s hope is similar to Robert’s expectation: “These actions by Luxembourg might not solve the legal problems with the Outer Space Treaty, but they will certainly up the pressure on the world’s space-faring nations to face the issue.“