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It's required to by the legislation that created it, the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958.
FUNCTIONS OF THE ADMINISTRATION
Sec. 203. (a) The Administration, in order to carry out the purpose of
this Act, shall--
(1) plan, direct, and conduct aeronautical and space activities;
(2) arrange for participation by the scientific ...
53
How to Protect and Preserve the Historic and Scientific Value of U.S. Government Lunar Artifacts summarizes the 1967 Outer Space Treaty thusly:
These recommendations are consistent with international law, including the following: The 1967 U.N. Outer Space Treaty (OST), which provides, in part:
That outer space shall be free for exploration and use by all ...
42
I drive by it every day... We do it for the benefit of all:
Really though, the government has a vested interest in making sure we (the United States) remain a technology leader in the world because it's good for the economy. Private industry is usually too risk-averse to undertake basic research with no current applications even though the payoff can ...
41
There's the following gem in the Apollo 13 transcript, regarding astronaut Jack Swigert:
024:18:10 CC
Okay. Some truck lines are being struck in the Midwest, and the school teachers have walked off the job in Minneapolis. Today's favorite pasttime across the - Uh oh; have you guys completed your income tax?
024:18:28 CDR
How do I apply for an extension?
024:...
answered Nov 11 '20 at 19:10
SE - stop firing the good guys
29.2k2 gold badges99 silver badges172 bronze badges
36
There aren't very many places a mutineer could go...
First off, for a combination of practical and logistical reasons, the ISS has never held its original planned crew of 7, and instead has been crewed by 3 people for virtually all of its service life, the exceptions being Shuttle and Soyuz visits, either for crew changes or to install or maintain parts of ...
24
The crew of Apollo 7 defied many orders from mission control, due to a crowded schedule, a lack of sleep, and the commander's head cold. Because all three were active members of the military at the time, they could have been subject to a military tribunal for insubordination.
Instead of a trial, they were never allowed to fly again. They were also the only ...
23
Because they're scientists, and publishing your results is what scientists do. There's a reason why the final step of basically every research methodology used in academia is "publish your results" (and I'm only saying "basically every" because I'm not an expert on the field of research methodologies, so while it's possible that there's one obscure one out ...
21
The International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement covers the ISS. Under the IGA, as it is often known, the laws of the nation (or region, in the case of the European Union) apply to its citizens and property :
This extension of national jurisdiction determines what laws are
applicable for activities occurring on a Partner’s Space Station
...
21
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 ...
21
Does mutiny count? If so, then I submit an incident back in 1973 involving the Skylab 4 crew who, citing excessive work load and not enough rest, stopped communicating with the ground stations and did not perform their scheduled duties.
Granted, some sources claim that the episode wasn’t a mutiny in the technical sense, but it did have the consequence of ...
19
Short answer: No.
(if you live in the USA)
Long answer:
Law is complex, but for a review of how things stood in 2005 check out: http://www.colonyfund.com/Reading/papers/NH_FAA_2005.pdf
It's quite a good article on most of the relevant FAA regulations.
For more detailed reading see the Office of Commercial Space Transportation: https://www.faa.gov/about/...
18
Possession is 9/10 of the law. If you somehow get there and steal the flag, it's not like any Space Marines are going to jump out from behind a crater rim. Law needs to be enforceable.
Maintaining ownership of the flag is a different issue. You can kiss your chance of being free on US soil goodbye, especially if you're a citizen. Laws would be found, made up,...
16
In the case of Falcon 9 / Orbcomm OG2 launch from SLC-40, Cape Canaveral Air Force Station, FL that's now scheduled for Dec. 20th at 8:29 p.m. EST (01:29 a.m. UTC), according to Spaceflight Now:
Sources said only an instantaneous launch opportunity is available
Sunday due to restrictions imposed by the Federal Aviation
Administration, which may be ...
16
With the exception of model rockets made of paper, wood, or breakable plastic, that are passively stabilized, that have low thrust and low delta V, and that do not have guidance software, launch vehicles fall under ITAR regulations. The regulations are now much more relaxed once the launch vehicle has achieved its goal and placed its payload into orbit. ...
15
First of all, let me give you what the typical requirements are for a launch, so we can compare them to your hypothetical situation. Managing a launch requires keeping an eye on where your rocket will be at any time, and what would happen to it if it exploded. Most launch facilities impose "Range Safety" requirements which must be demonstrated prior to ...
15
One interesting answer to your question is Copenhagen Suborbitals. They're almost a back-yard project.
Our mission is very simple. We are working towards launching a human
being into space.
This is a non-profit suborbital space endeavour founded and led by
Kristian von Bengtson and Peter Madsen, based entirely on sponsors,
private donators and ...
15
The United States launch sites are the most accessible, both in terms of location (near population centers and accessible) and political environment. Kennedy Space Center in particular is welcoming of visitors, and to a lesser extent Wallops, and you can get into Vandenburg occasionally if you ask nicely.
As far as other countries, the major centers are ...
15
A few of reasons for not mounting such a terraforming mission now are:
Cost-effectiveness. It's expensive to go to Mars, and simply throwing some seeds and fertilizer at the place is too unlikely to yield a desirable result to be worth doing. All terrestrial life is adapted to terrestrial environments and ecosystems, especially complex life like plants. ...
14
Although this may be surprising, there is a whole discipline called "Space Law".
As there is space law, there are space lawyers. You should look into the work and activities of e.g. http://www.virgiliupop.com/
There are countless private claims on territory in space. The maybe strangest one is this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nation_of_Celestial_Space
...
14
Could you? Well, maybe. Let's take a look at one instance where people were encouraged to do that very feat, for $10 million. I'm of course talking about the Ansari X-Prize of 10 years ago. This did a few things that were difficult for the time, giving a cash incentive, and helping with some of the permits and other required items to make it happen. Most of ...
13
First of all, let's get a few things straight.
The FCC has a partial agreement for space launches, specifically, they are allowed to regulate the use of frequencies, etc.
The FAA is allowed to regulate the spacecraft, launch site, and the timing of the launch, and similar such things. But their power pretty much stops at the atmosphere.
In essence, as ...
13
The Outer Space Treaty (signed by the US in 1967) specifies that (Article IX):
States Parties to the Treaty shall pursue studies of outer space, including the Moon and other celestial bodies, and conduct exploration of them so as to avoid their harmful contamination and also adverse changes in the environment of the Earth resulting from the introduction ...
13
There are two schools of thought discussed in Asteroid Mining: International and Legal Aspects by Frans G. von der Dunk:
Perspective 1: The US and countries like Luxembourg believe that any resources mined on the moon are global commons which allows licensed entities to make a commercial business out of mining the moon. (see page 96 in the document and ...
12
According to Andrew Tingkang of Seattle University School of Law (in a paper from 2011), the Outer Space Treaty has never been amended. The amendment addressed in "Common Ground in the Sky: Extending the 1967 Outer Space Treaty to Reconcile U.S. and Chinese Security Interests" by Alex B. Engelhart was a proposed amendment that was never ratified.
Sources:
...
12
Disclaimer: IANASL - I Am Not A Space Lawyer :)
This would greatly depend on individual nations carrying out space missions and their national space laws, which would be by an order of magnitude too broad to be reasonably covered within this Q&A, but I presume you're limiting your question to international-law, as the tag you chose implies, and what ...
12
Whether the reported article is accurate?
It's rather bad in my opinion. The news is outdated and incorrect. This part was completely incorrect:
After a multi-decade hiatus, both NASA and the Russian Federal Space Agency (which developed many of its own NTRs during the Cold War but never physically tested their designs) announced in April 2012 that they ...
12
The question how much revenue might arise from a patent isn't something that can generally be proved or disproved (except sometimes in retrospect).
Bear in mind, though, that the Apollo program was from the 1960s, and the term of patents (in the United States) used to be 17 years (from issue-date) (and is now 20 years from application-date) -- https://en....
12
This is actually built on a false premise. NASA can, and does, charge for patent usage. See this page for what it takes to get a NASA patent license. Note this:
including higher royalties
Or this one:
NASA will collect a standard net royalty fee
This shows the NASA process for managing patents. They actually will pay the inventor a portion of the ...
11
The general rule of thumb on this type of issue is that if it is in orbit, then you don't have to worry about traveling through other countries, and if it is not yet in orbit, you should ask permission from whatever country you are flying through. For this reason, and safety reasons in general, most spacecraft launch from the coast. Thus, a sub-orbital ...
11
According to the Article VIII of the Outer Space Treaty:
A State Party to the Treaty on whose registry an object launched into
outer space is carried shall retain jurisdiction and control over such
object, and over any personnel thereof, while in outer space or on a
celestial body. Ownership of objects launched into outer space,
including objects ...
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