Space Act of 2015
The Space Act of 2015

Changing the Status Quo in Space Activities?

Summary/Abstract: The article provides an analysis of the consequences of the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act 2015 on geopolitics of the Outer Space. In the first part is provided the critical review of development of the space law regime to the nowadays. This section mentions both international and national space legislation. Then uniqueness of the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act 2015 is brought up. The main part, and original contribution of the article is provided in following chapters which contain: 1) legal debate on possible violation of international agreements, in particular the 1967 Outer Space Treaty. Among the Outer Space Treaty‘s key points are that it forbids claiming celestial objects and mentions that the exploration and use of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit and in the interests of all countries and shall be the province of all mankind; 2) impacts of the implementation of the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act 2015 on international relations; 3) issue of commercialisation of space activities and transformation of space sector to so-called New Space.

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