Is Spaceflight Colonialism? (original) (raw)

Defending Spaceflight - The Echoes of Apollo

Space Policy, 2016

This paper defends, and emphasizes the importance of, spaceflight, broadly construed to include human and unmanned spaceflight, space science, exploration and development. Within this discourse, I provide counter-replies to remarks by physicist Dr. Steven Weinberg against my previous support of human spaceflight. In this defense of peaceful spaceflight I draw upon a variety of sources. Although a focus is human spaceflight, human and unmanned modes must not be treated as an either-or opposition. Rather, each has a critical role to play in moving humanity forward as a spacefaring species. In the course of this communication, I also stress the perennial role of space agencies as science and technology-drivers, and their function to provide a stable and unified platform for space programs.

Challenges to the Prohibition on Sovereignty in Outer Space - A New Frontier for Space Governance

Potchefstroom Electronic Law Journal, 2021

The current space arena has changed significantly since the 1950s, when outer space activities commenced. At the time of the adoption of the Outer Space Treaty (and the related General Assembly Resolutions), the outer space arena was largely dominated by the political interests of the two major space powers, the USA and the (then) USSR. Although states have remained the primary actors in regulating the use of outer space, the extent to which private companies would become involved in the exploration and use of space was not envisaged at the time of the conclusion of the space treaties. It is particularly the involvement of private space actors that complicates the traditional understanding of the prohibition on territorial sovereignty in outer space. With specific reference to the outer space boundary, the principle of the common heritage of humankind and property rights in outer space, this contribution aims to highlight some of the challenges to the prohibition of sovereignty in v...

OUTER SPACE: OF THE PEOPLE, BY THE PEOPLE, AND FOR THE PEOPLE

The realm of outer space has been declared by established treaties to be the "province of mankind," where national ownership claims do not apply. Yet necessary technologies to reach and use our common realm are controlled by nation states. The United States Government and its allies use the licensing process of the International Transfer in Arms Regulations (ITAR) to control transfer of space technologies to space-faring ventures of other countries. The controls are linked to national security concerns over the use of outer space for military purposes. This paper will explore the detrimental effects caused by the current system of ITAR upon global aerospace industries as well as upon new space-faring nations, and explore a potential evolution of the system of International Law that can help open space for the benefit of all people. The Obama Administration has expressed an interest in changing this system to be more transparent and accessible. In this period of transition to an era of greater cooperation, it may be timely to explore opportunities for reforms that can help outer space fulfill its promise as a realm of the people, by the people and for the people of Earth.

REGULATION OF SPACE ACTIVITIES: 1958-1963

Analytical and Comparative Jurisprudence, 2023

Stagnation in the development of the process of regulation of relations in outer space and on celestial bodies as well as a large number of gaps and contradictions in this area along with impressive technical progress in the field of space activities and the expansion of its subject composition have led to the need to reconsider existing approaches to regulating such relations. This article is the beginning of an extensive study of the process and results of the regulation of space activities from 1958 to the present day. The purpose of this study is a deep analysis of international documents adopted for the entire period of space activities, as well as an attempt to highlight the basic principles, concepts, models, and rules of space activities. The results of this study will make it possible to understand the issues that remain unresolved and the gaps in the field of space law and also set new tasks for the development of space law and suggest ways to solve them. This article includes a review and analysis of international documents adopted at the first stage of the development of space activities (1958-1963), and also the goals and conditions for their adoption. As a result of this analysis, the article presents a list and description of the tasks that were formed by the international community at this stage along with the difficulties that arose at the stage of their formation and implementation. In addition, a new vision of the concepts that arose at this stage in connection with the need to regulate space activities is proposed. In the future, the results of this analysis will allow us to continue the study of space relationships to determine and describe the essence of the legal systems that regulate or may regulate space activities, as well as to identify (define, classify, and formulate) spatial-territorial jurisdictions and subject-object composition of participants in space activities.

Outer Space Development, International Relations and Space Law: A Method for Elucidating Seeds

It is the eve of outer space development, but few people are aware of this. In the absence of awareness, people cannot prepare for the opportunities that will arise; and so the vast wealth likely to flow to Earth from outer space will cause ever-greater inequality and instability in our already unequal and unstable world. This book is a call to educators to factor equality and diversity into the process of outer space development by creating a widespread movement to teach outer space development studies to all students, especially those who study social and behavioral sciences. In calling for this, the author is also putting out a call to visionary thinkers to increase public awareness that outer space is already in the process of being developed. Her objective is to provide a pedagogical approach aimed at mending the knowledge gap. If we fail in this objective, we are more likely than ever before to witness ever-widening gaps of social and financial inequality. http://www.cambridgescholars.com/outer-space-development-international-relations-and-space-law-16

The Changing Concept of Sovereignty in Outer Space

Legal Bloc Journal (ISSN: 2395-0277) , 2015

Since World War I, the accepted principle has been that countries can direct flight over their regions or regional oceans. Apparently, nobody was genuinely worried about satellites and space vessels when the different traditions tending to over flight were drawn. In any case, the space soon gets to be noteworthy. One of the most punctual issues was exactly how far national sovereign power reaches out: when does airspace stop and space start. The issues surrounding sovereignty over outer space are likely to become ever more critical as globalisation, growing pressure on resources and the need for energy and national security become acute, and the resolution of special delimitation disputes seems likely to become an important question in the twenty-first century. This project begins shall constitute an examination of sovereignty and exploitation of resources on earth and in outer space. It provides a good overview of relevant international space law, focusing on provisions of the Outer Space Treaty and the Moon Agreement and other treaties so as to answer the debatable question of sovereignty over outer space.

Limiting Outer Space: Astroculture after Apollo

2018

After the Apollo moon landings, disillusionment set in. With the return of the last astronaut in 1972, the skies – rather than the distant stars – once again became the limit. No longer considered the inevitable destination of infinite human expansion, outer space lost much of the popular appeal, cultural significance and political urgency that it had gained since the end of the Second World War. With the rapid waning of the worldwide Apollo frenzy, the optimism of the Space Age gave way to an era of planetized limits and space fatigue. Bringing together the history of European astroculture and American-Soviet spaceflight with recent scholarship on the 'long 1970s,' the thirteen chapters in this cutting-edge volume examine this period of transition and reconfiguration from a multiplicity of disciplinary perspectives. Rather than invoking oft-repeated narratives of a bipolar Cold War rivalry and an escalating Space Race, Limiting Outer Space breaks fascinating new ground by exploring a hitherto underrated and understudied decade, the Post-Apollo period.