THE NEED FOR INTERNATIONAL COORDINATION TO RESOLVE MULTIPLE LICENSING REQUIREMENTS IN DOMESTIC LAWS FOR PRIVATE AND COMMERCIAL SPACE LAUNCHES

摘要

The undertaking of commercial launch activities is presently one of the few fields of private and commercial endeavours that may require the participants to be licensed by more than one country. For the purposes of the existing international treaties in force, only the "appropriate" country is required to "authorise and continually supervise" the private space activity. However, liability is imposed on the countries that launches, procures the launch or from whose territory or facility a space object is launched. This results in the possibility that multiple countries may be found liable for damage caused by a space object.