INTEGRATED MAINS AND PRELIMS MENTORSHIP (IMPM) 2025 Daily KEY
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Context:
India is set to celebrate its second National Space Day on August 23. Following Chandrayaan-3’s soft-landing near the lunar south pole to the upcoming Gaganyaan and Chandrayaan missions, as well as the Bharat Antariksh Station, the Indian space programme is set to make history many times over. Yet an essential component remains grounded — the legal architecture. In the race to explore, innovate, and commercialise outer space, a strong space law is necessary
Read about:
Outer Space Treaty of 1967
IN-SPACe Norms
Key takeaways:
- The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 declares outer space as the common heritage of humanity, thereby prohibiting any claim of sovereignty over it. It also makes states accountable for all space activities carried out under their jurisdiction, whether by government agencies or private operators.
- Supplementary agreements to the treaty establish binding norms relating to rights, duties, and liability. However, these international agreements do not automatically apply within domestic legal systems. As highlighted by Aarti Holla-Maini, Director of the UN Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA), the UN space treaties lay down the essential guiding principles—from ensuring the peaceful use of outer space to defining the liability of states.
- To implement these norms effectively, countries need to pass national space laws, which ensure that their space industries grow responsibly, sustainably, and in harmony with global obligations.
- India is a party to the major UN space treaties but is still in the process of adopting a comprehensive national space law. Unlike policy, which expresses intent, legislation provides an enforceable legal framework.
- According to Rossana Deim-Hoffmann, who leads UNOOSA’s Global Space Law Project, domestic space laws bring clarity, predictability, and regulatory stability for both state and private players.
- Several nations—including the United States, Japan, and Luxembourg—have already introduced such laws, creating systems for licensing, liability management, and recognition of commercial space rights.
- India has adopted a gradual and carefully sequenced approach towards framing space legislation. Space law expert Ranjana Kaul explains that national space law must address two interconnected dimensions.
- The first involves technical rules governing the conduct of commercial space activities in orbit, which corresponds to the “authorisation” requirement under Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty (OST). The Department of Space has been advancing systematically in this area.
- This cautious strategy has already produced tangible outcomes, such as the Catalogue of Indian Standards for Space Industry, aimed at ensuring the safety of space missions; the Indian Space Policy, which specifies the types of activities open to private participation; and the IN-SPACe Norms, Guidelines and Procedures (NPG) 2023, which operationalise the policy in terms of authorising space-related activities.
- Yet, the second key element remains incomplete. Dr. Kaul points out that this pertains to the comprehensive legislative framework—or “space activities law”—which would incorporate provisions of the OST in a precise and well-drafted manner
- IN-SPACe, which at present functions without a formal legal mandate, needs explicit statutory authority to effectively serve as the primary