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Is it possible to have a legal wedding in space?
For example, any of the following could answer the question:
Many jurisdictions recognize weddings performed out-of-jurisdiction provided that those weddings are legal in the jurisdiction they're performed in. Unfortunately, there's no legal authority with jurisdiction over LEO -- it's kind of a legal gray area.
Does any national law system provide a means for marriage officiants to lawfully perform a marriage at an arbitrary location outside of the territorial jurisdiction of the authorizing state (which could include space, even if not explicitly mentioned in the law)?
Marriage by proxy, as in the Malenchenko case mentioned by @PearsonArtPhoto, is legal in some jurisdictions:
In the United States, proxy marriages are provided for in law or by customary practice in Texas, Colorado, Kansas, and Montana Of these, Montana is the only state that allows double-proxy marriage. Proxy marriages cannot be solemnized in all other U.S. states.
...but as @called2voyage points out, the marriage is performed on Earth.
There's a tradition of allowing ship captains to perform marriages at sea in international waters; those marriages are often but not always recognized:
In one well-known case, Fisher vs. Fisher, a court ruled that a particular marriage solemnized by a ship's captain was valid (and more generally that, absent a statute stating otherwise, an exchange of vows between two consenting parties constituted a valid marriage). In another case, Norman vs. Norman, a court came down on the opposite side of the fence.
Fisher vs Fisher was a 1929 case in New York state; Norman vs Thomson (frequently cited as Norman vs Norman) was an 1898 California case, but the wedding was invalidated because it was held that the couple married at sea:
for the avowed purpose of evading the statute of the state requiring a license and solemnization by an authorized person.
Given those precedents, I suspect that if the commander of the ISS performed a wedding of a couple of New York residents aboard, and it appeared that the marriage was entered into in good faith, that New York state would recognize the marriage upon their return home, and that the marriage would be thus recognized throughout the US via the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution.
After reviewing the Canon Law, it should be possible to get married in space in a way accepted by the Catholic Church. Many countries accept a Catholic marriage as valid into their own jurisdiction almost automatically (likewise those valid for other religions) but, most importantly, it should be acceptable on Vatican City.
Marriage is described in canons 1055 - 1165, and you would have to meet a few requisites, most interesting:
However, note that you could skip the pastor and marry with just the witnesses if no priest is available and is prudently foreseen that the situation will continue for a month.
It may be possible. According to the Huffington Post in 2012, the Bahamas allowed for marriage in international waters as long as it took place on a cruise line registered in the Bahamas. I am not a lawyer, but theoretically, it may be possible for this principle to be extended to space, if the officiant had registered with the Bahamas with the explicit purpose to perform marriage in space.
Japan may have an explicit instance of allowing space marriage: the company First Advantage. This was offered in 2011 and no mention of legality was made.
The most important thing for answering this question - is determining whose jurisdiction a wedding would fall under. Especially when looking for how this may play out in the future - with deeper space travel.
The only permanently manned space vessel we have currently, is the International Space Station. As such, whatever agreements and laws are present here are likely to extend to any future space travel efforts.
In the ISS Legal Framework the jurisdictions are made clear:
The basic rule is that 'each partner shall retain jurisdiction and control over the elements it registers and over personnel in or on the Space Station who are its nationals' (Article 5 of the Intergovernmental Agreement).
This means that the owners of the Space Station - the United States, Russia, the European Partner, Japan and Canada - are legally responsible for the respective elements they provide. The European States are being treated as one homogenous entity, called the European Partner on the Space Station. But any of the European States may extend their respective national laws and regulations to the European elements, equipment and personnel.
As such, as long as you were in an area of the ISS (or other ship in future) that was owned by a government that would normally allow you to get married - you would also be able to get married there.
Side Note: While above I mention that you can get married, if you are in an area of the spaceship that is owned by a nation who'd normally let you get married - each nation has it's own laws regarding marriage in different territories. For example, every state in the United States has different marriage laws, and so without a law at federal level you may not actually be able to get married on the American part of the ISS. Similarly, if the Russians one day passed a law that specifically forbid space-marriage, you would not be able to from their areas of any space craft.
The specifics of which countries would or would not currently allow you to be married in space is too large for this answer. But the main point remains - if you did want to, the jurisdiction that decides whether you can, is whoever owns that part of the space ship.
Yes, and in fact, it has already happened. Yuri Malenchenko was married to Ekaterina Dmitrieva while he was on the International Space Station, and she was in Texas.
There are also a few services that are taking reservations to be married in sub-orbital flights, like First Advantage.
