Full Description
This book deals with the 'definition/delimitation question' with special regard to the passage of spacecraft through foreign airspace for reaching the orbit and returning to Earth. This is particularly important for space transportation systems like the US Space Shuttle or the Soviet BURAN, which were used in the past. New systems are already planned in the US, Europe and China. However, they will all encounter the same 'passageproblems' as their two predecessors, according to the present and foreseeable state of space technology. The authors start with a presentation of the relevant technical basics, which is then followed by legal considerations taking into account the extremely sensitive space environment where civilian, commercial and governmental (including military) activities are conducted by fundamentally different actors with diverging interests and philosophies. In this context State practice with respect to passage rights and agreements with respect to abort and emergency landing sites on foreign territory are also discussed. As an annex a comprehensive selection of relevant documents is reprinted.
Contents
Part I Scientific Technical Aspects and the Law; 1. Introduction; 2. Scientific and Technical Aspects; 3. Present State of the Legal Debate and Suggested Solutions within UNCOPUOS; 4. Comments; Part II Materials; 5 The Question of the Definition and/or the Delimitation of Outer Space: Background Papers Prepared by the UNCOPUOS Secretariat of 7 May 1970 and 21 January 1977 (Excerpts); 6 International Civil Aviation Organization: Concept of Suborbital Flights, Information Submitted to the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space UNCOPUOS Legal Subcommittee, March 19, 2010; 7. NASAfacts: Space Shuttle Transoceanic Abort Landing (TAL) Sites; 8. Transport Canada: NASA Space Shuttle Emergency Landing Site Contingency Plan; 9 Agreement between the Government of the United States of America and the Government of the French Republic Concerning the Use of Istres Le Tube 125 Air Base as a Transoceanic Landing Site. Done in Washington, 7 June 2005; 10 USA-Japan: Agreement on Space Shuttle Contingency Landing Sites
