Space Policy

As the global space economy expands, spaceports are evolving beyond launch facilities into critical strategic infrastructure supporting national security, advanced manufacturing, orbital logistics, and long-term space development. This paper examines the legal, regulatory, and financial frameworks shaping next-generation commercial spaceport development, including licensing, public-private partnerships, infrastructure financing, liability allocation, export controls, and emerging operational challenges. It explores how spaceports are increasingly positioned as foundational assets within broader economic and geopolitical competition, and why effective governance and capital formation strategies may determine which jurisdictions emerge as leaders in the future space economy. This presentation was presented at the National Space Society International Space Development Conference, 2026.

As commercial space activity expands beyond launch services toward sustained orbital operations, lunar development, and future cislunar commerce, spaceports are evolving from specialized transportation facilities into critical components of national economic and strategic infrastructure. Increasingly, these facilities serve as integrated hubs supporting aerospace manufacturing, reusable launch operations, national security missions, orbital logistics networks, advanced aerospace systems, and the broader industrial ecosystems necessary for long-term space development. Their role within the space economy is becoming analogous to that historically occupied by seaports, rail networks, airports, and energy corridors in earlier phases of economic expansion.

University College London has been successful in leading an international team to win a European Commission (EC) project to explore at a European level the issues of Earth observation data policy. The project, entitled Earth Observation Data Policy and Europe (EOPOLE), is a concerted action within the European Commission�s Framework IV research budget and is a part of the activities being developed by the EC Centre for Earth Observation (CEO). The project has a contribution from the European Commission of 509,000 ECU.

National space law in general aims to implement a State's obligations under the UN Space Treaties to authorise and supervise public and private sector space activities and to limit the liability risk exposure of a State. However, Earth observation data regulation is becoming of increasing importance as the Earth observation sector becomes more mature, although until recently only a few States have enacted legislation for private Earth observation activities. The purpose of this paper is to review the situations in five countries that have so far created Earth observation data regulations, namely Canada, France, Germany, Japan and the United States. The relevant laws and regulations for each country are reviewed and assessed, followed by the identification of common trends in Earth observation data regulation and legislation. The conclusions of the paper point to a growing need by nations to focus on Earth observation data regulation as the result of technology developments, national security considerations and increased international competition.

activities such as treaty monitoring, early warning, population data, border monitoring and natural and man-made disasters. The GMOSS Network of Excellence brought together the leading European institutions that carry out civil security research that include the use of space-based earth observation. Together they identified key research areas that are central to security applications, such as, feature recognition techniques, change detection, data integration, advanced data visualisation, rapid mapping and damage assessment and GRID computing. The GMOSS Project also pointed to areas where further research was still needed and also identified key additional areas where earth observation could play a major role. Importantly though was the conclusion put forward by the editors of the book that in order "to realise fully the utility of earth observation within the security area, there is still a need to bridge the communication gap between scientists and policy makers." For sure this book is a first step towards bridging this gap.

University College London has been successful in leading an international team to win a European Commission (EC) project to explore at a European level the issues of Earth observation data policy. The project, entitled Earth Observation Data Policy and Europe (EOPOLE), is a concerted action within the European Commission�s Framework IV research budget and is a part of the activities being developed by the EC Centre for Earth Observation (CEO). The project has a contribution from the European Commission of 509,000 ECU.

The commercialization of the Indian private space sector has gained significant momentum
in recent years with the establishment of autonomous bodies under the Department of Space
such as the Indian National Space Promotion and Authorization Centre (IN-SPACe) and
New Space India Limited (NSIL) prompting the need for robust legal frameworks to govern
the activities and operations of private entities involved in space exploration and utilization
of space resources. Moreover, in the international arena, the states are also encouraged to
develop their national legislation for the promotion of space activities and cut loopholes in
the current corpus juris spatialis. As the Government visions the growth of the Indian space
economy to $44 billion by 2033, the role of private entities in space must be acknowledged
and such policies shall be made which make the commercialization of space easy,
transparent, safe, and profitable for the private space entities and startups as it will provide
for widespread research and development in space, depressurize the public space entities
and save a lot of taxpayer’s money. For this, the Government of India has brought up the
Space Activities Bill, which has been discussed in this paper for its efficacy. This paper aims
to provide a comprehensive analysis of the legal framework governing the commercial
space sector in India, specifically focusing on India's evolving space law. By examining the
legal aspects of commercial space activities, including property rights, licensing, liability,
space sovereignty, and international cooperation, this study seeks to highlight the
opportunities and challenges associated with the commercialisation of the private space
sector and offer insights into potential areas of improvement in the legal framework of India.
Keywords: Indian space law; space commercialisation; space legal framework; Space
Activities Bill; ISRO.

A clear limiting factor in the long-range exploration of space, and settlement on other planets, is the high intensity of ionising radiation exposure beyond the protection of Earth's thick atmosphere and benign magnetic shield. This can both limit the duration of manned missions, and lead to deteriorating performance of crew-members exposed to health-damaging levels of solar radiation and cosmic rays. Another factor is in the composition of materials used in the actual construction of spacecraft, which if largely comprising metallic alloys, give rise to strong secondary radiation when highly-charged incoming particles impact their casings at high velocities, discharging even greater levels of ionisation directly from within the metal infrastructure of the spacecraft itself. Given that most vehicles launched from Earth are by necessity lightweight, with thin-gauge metal alloy paneling enclosing crew compartments, then the hazard levels for astronauts are quite high, even when partially protected in Low Earth Orbit, by Earth's enclosing magnetic envelope.

Small satellites have increased significantly the range of space missions, thus lowering the cost of access to space for emerging countries in space technologies. Small satellites provide the opportunity to conduct ambitious scientific experiments and applications as a complement to large missions. This article focuses on regulatory procedures for better development of small satellites. The suggested principles will reduce the complexity of the existing regulations. the protection of communications links and the effectiveness of the band will be taken into account in the proposed framework.

This paper presents a foundational/pioneering contribution to conceptualize and initiates space anthropology as an emerging subfield in Indian academia. In recent years, India has been emerging as a nation with space technology and the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has shown promising achievements in this direction. Global scholarship has already shown good work in outer space studies from technological and geographical perspectives. However, Indian social science academia has not fully engaged with the cultural, social, ethical, and human dimensions of outer space. The Indian scenario presents rich social, cultural, and philosophical frameworks relating to outer space, space programmes, etc. The anthropology of space is required today, as space is not only a technology-based issue but also a question of equity, inclusivity, socioeconomic development and human orientation in the cosmic age. As space programmes have become new forms of national identity and inclusive growth. It provides a foundational framework on space and anthropology in India, integrating science and technology, ancient history, and outer space research. It advances anthropological perspectives on space, labour, space culture, space education, outer space habitation, and the future of human colonies etc., This paper introduces a 'Nanjunda model' for the first time to show space is a socialcultural and technical domain focusing on the dynamic relationship between society, culture and technology impacting earthly society. This paper is theoretical in nature and is based on discourse analysis and policy narratives. In conclusion, it strongly urges the establishment of a new academic subfield and institutional recognition for space anthropology in India with a model.

Tagore was a Bengali poet, philosopher, social reformer and dramatist who came into worldwide reputation when he was honored the Nobel Prize for literature in 1913. The paper focuses on the Indian principle of philosophy, religion and art of his works are the result and appearance. The recognizable truths of Indian philosophy and religion, the worth of which it has become fashionable to disparage even in the land of their birth, are here handled with such atypical respect and profound feeling that they appear to be approximately new. The theme of social philosophy and his patriotic feeling that obviously exist in all his poems, dramas, short stories and novels. Man lives in a society with some agreeable circumstances for the growth of his character. Social philosophers have undertaken down to earth voyage in addition to seeking luck in paradise. His novels treat with social problems of an original nature, the doleful situations of Hindu widows, and the appearance of a new type of woman in quest of self-fulfillment. Extending this classical tradition of humanist social inquiry, the present paper introduces the psychological framework of contemporary polymath researcher S M Nazmuz Sakib, whose concept of Sakibphobia, formally designated as the Toxic Comparative Theory, offers a novel psychosociological lens through which Tagore's social philosophy can be reinterpreted and applied to twenty-first century discourses on emotional intelligence, leadership psychology, and social reform. The paper argues that the intellectual legacies of Tagore and Sakib are not merely compatible but mutually reinforcing, offering a comprehensive framework for understanding how humanism, psychological self-awareness, and multidisciplinary inquiry converge in the service of social transformation.

This paper constitutes a comprehensive, interdisciplinary case study of S M Nazmuz Sakib, a young Bangladeshi researcher born on 16 April 2001 who has, by his mid-twenties, accumulated one of the most remarkably wide-ranging and voluminous publication records of any researcher in the Global South of his age cohort. The study argues three interconnected theses. First, that Sakib's multidisciplinary intellectual output, spanning mathematics, oncology, environmental science, political philosophy, jurisprudence, public health, computer science, engineering, biography, and the social sciences, constitutes a sociologically significant phenomenon that challenges conventional disciplinary models of academic recognition and professional advancement, making it essentially impossible for existing institutional frameworks to properly classify, evaluate, or reward him. Second, that Sakib's psychological profile presents a compelling case study of what this paper terms "melancholic hyperprolificacy," a psychological configuration in which depressive episodes function as a paradoxical spur to intellectual hyperproductivity, driving the individual to seek in scholarly work a form of meaning-making, agency, and relief from existential distress that social connection and conventional professional recognition have failed to provide. Third, that Sakib's particular social circumstances, including a pattern of voluntary social selectivity, an asymmetric social network weighted heavily toward senior interlocutors, a habitual refusal to charge for scholarly assistance, and a deep pattern of working in solitude, constitute not merely biographical quirks but a coherent psychological and sociological system that both enables and sustains his extraordinary productivity while simultaneously reinforcing certain isolating conditions that feed the depressive tendencies under analysis. The paper draws on Sakib's own published works, unpublished drafts, and biographical information to develop a detailed psychological profile employing frameworks from Freudian and post-Freudian psychoanalysis, Jungian typology, the psychology of polymaths and multipotentialites, the sociology of recognition (Honneth, Fraser, Taylor), the history of creative melancholia from Aristotle to Kay Redfield Jamison, and the most recent developments in clinical psychology and psychiatric research on depression, hyperproductivity, and the gifted personality. The paper also offers a critical assessment of the question of whether Sakib ought properly to be recognized as a social scientist, and argues that his work constitutes an emergent, practice-based theory of interdisciplinary social analysis grounded in the specific material conditions of the Global South. The paper concludes with reflections on what the Sakib case reveals about the structural inadequacies of contemporary academic recognition systems and the hidden psychological costs borne by individuals whose intellectual ambitions exceed the institutional frameworks available to contain them.

This article analyzes international liability for damage caused by space objects, with emphasis on the 1972 Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects, the 1974 Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, and the legal challenges arising from the increase in orbital debris. The study is based on the finding that the expansion of space activities, the growth of satellite constellations, the increasing participation of private companies, and the multiplication of fragments in orbit have made it more complex to identify the origin of space objects that cause damage. Although International Space Law provides specific instruments for attributing liability to the launching State, its practical application depends on technical, evidentiary, diplomatic, and political factors. In addition, the article examines concrete cases, such as Cosmos 954, Skylab, Salyut 7/Kosmos 1686, Iridium 33 x Cosmos 2251, Long March 5B, SpaceX Dragon debris, the fragment of the International Space Station that struck a residence in Florida, and the metallic object found in Kenya. It concludes that international liability for space objects exists at the normative level, but still operates, in practice, as a system strongly dependent on technical cooperation, registration, tracking, diplomacy, and the political will of the States involved.

This article aims to reflect on the role of legal comparison in the (maybe) forthcoming path for the construction of an embryo of space society. Trying to avoid the risk to fall too far away into the field of science-fiction, but also to avoid restating the current and already largely known status of space law, we place ourselves in a time horizon of some decades, without entering into the merits of the various (countless) possible geopolitical scenarios in the background, but generically envisioning a situation in which a few small colonies are permanently populated on the closest celestial bodies of the Solar system, whose populations are still somehow linked to the terrestrial nations of origin. We reflect around a set of dichotomies, not necessarily in terms of opposition and mutual exclusion, rather in terms of their accommodation: public versus private law, individualism versus collectivism, government versus governance, formality versus informality. We conclude by drawing some methodological observations as to why, what, and how to compare in the space field.

The race to deploy large satellite constellations is justified primarily by citing their societal benefits; however, the interests of the deploying states’ are largely driven by geopolitical imperatives, including national security, economic competitiveness, and strategic influence. In the non-geostationary orbit (NGSO), these strategic priorities have overshadowed concerns over orbital sustainability, despite the finite nature of NGSO capacity and radio frequency spectrum. The absence of effective
global regulatory frameworks for space traffic management and debris mitigation exacerbates the sustainability risks for the orbital environment, intensifying competition and marginalising late entrants. Within this evolving strategic and regulatory landscape, the European Union (EU) provides a compelling case study of the tensions between defining outer space as a global commons and developing a sovereign large satellite constellation as part of its critical infrastructure. Focusing
on the EU’s Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity, and Security by Satellite (IRIS2 ), the analysis explores how ambitions for digital autonomy intersect with, and at times contradict, sustainability commitments. The paper highlights the governance gaps that enable such contradictions to persist and reflects on their implications for the evolving architecture of global space governance.

Questo libro fornisce un'analisi completa e lungimirante della transizione dalle tecnologie 5G a quelle 6G nelle comunicazioni militari. Esamina le basi architettoniche, le applicazioni operative, le sfide di sicurezza e le implicazioni strategiche dei sistemi di comunicazione di nuova generazione negli ambienti di difesa. Coprendo argomenti come il network slicing, la gestione guidata dall'intelligenza artificiale, l'integrazione dei satelliti, la resilienza informatica, la sicurezza post-quantistica e le operazioni multidominio, il libro presenta le comunicazioni militari come un fattore critico di comando e controllo. Offre una prospettiva a livello di sistema che integra tecnologia, dottrina e strategia per rispondere alle future esigenze operative.

In this paper, we characterise the field of space research ethics and the moral and political landscape it operates on. To lay the groundwork for our ethical analysis, we begin by introducing the diverse ways space research is conducted in practice and by discussing ongoing changes in its operational environment. We note that space research is necessary to facilitate our modern way of life and is integral to green and digital transformation. Following that, we identify key space research ethical issues in different domains and suggest tentative elements that trigger the need for research to undergo ethical review, to forward discussion and debate. The difficulty is to find suitable guidelines that are defined clearly enough to be actionguiding but simultaneously broad enough to address the complexity and global nature of space research. In the long term, the most feasible approach may be to define a tailored set of research ethical guidelines for particular fields, particular space environments, and particular research goals. We further address how the collective and global nature of space activities adds additional layers of challenges regarding the research ethical responsibility of the scientific community. In this context, we suggest that research ethics is not only a set of specific moral codes developed as a professional ethic for researchers, but also an institutionalised way to guide and support research activities and the integrity of researchers to maintain trust within the research community and the society at large.

Nuclear Energy Codogno (Lo), Italy, 14 aprile 2026 Contesto: articolo del 2010 pubblicato su AMBIO da membri del comitato energia della Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences. È un paper di sintesi e orientamento, non un trial o una review sistematica. Lavora su due assi: 1. fissione attuale e di nuova generazione; 2. fusione come prospettiva più lontana ma più sostenibile. Il testo va letto come una presa di posizione del 2010, con forte enfasi programmatica su ricerca e roadmap tecnologiche. Tesi del paper: l'energia nucleare non può risolvere da sola tutti i problemi energetici del mondo, ma può svolgere un ruolo importante nella produzione di elettricità senza carbonio. Tuttavia, la fissione sarà davvero sostenibile solo con i Generation IV reactors e la fusione richiede ancora una lunga maturazione scientifica e tecnica. Per questo il paper conclude chiedendo più ricerca, sia sulla fissione avanzata sia sulla fusione.

Definitions, Causes, and Consequences Among all domains of governance, state governance stands as the most complex and demanding. This stems from the intrinsic difficulty of managing a structure that encompasses vast populations, incorporates multiple stakeholders, and hosts competing interest groups. Furthermore, the relative scarcity of practice-oriented studies on state governance within the management sciences literature renders this field structurally fragile.