Presented on behalf of the Inaugural Stanford Space Law & Policy Perspectives Editorial Board

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Space is booming. From the early days of space exploration, humanity has progressed to planning for the utilization of space and long-term habitation beyond Earth. In this era commonly known as “New Space,” several new trends have emerged over the past decades.

First, an exponential growth in space activities. In 2010, 121 objects were launched into space.[1] By 2024, the number of objects launched was over 2,800—a nearly 24-fold increase.[2] In fact, experts estimate that more satellites have been launched in the five years preceding 2025 than in the preceding six decades combined.[3] Underlying this growth is a drastic reduction in launch costs driven by the advent of reusable rockets. Once hailed as the “holy grail” of space technology, rocket reusability is substantially reshaping the economics of space launches. Whereas it cost at least 5,000 U.S. dollars (USD) to launch one kilogram of payload into orbit on older vehicles (the Space Shuttle notoriously cost well over 50,000 USD per kilogram), SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy can launch at around 1,500 USD per kilogram.[4] When fully operational, SpaceX’s Starship could further bring the cost down to below 200 USD per kilogram.[5] With multiple mega‑constellations under creation, including SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon’s Project Kuiper, and China’s Qianfan, there may be more than 100,000 space objects in low-Earth orbit by 2030 compared to 8,000 now.[6][7]

Second, the increasing commercialization of the space industry, particularly in the United States. The exponential growth in space activities is even more remarkable when we consider which actors are launching into space. In 2024, nearly 70% of orbital launches were conducted by private companies, most notably by U.S.-based SpaceX.[8] Moreover, the push towards commercially driven space activities is not only reflected in the volume, but also in the nature of space activities. Beyond orbital launch, private enterprises are now active in even deeper segments of the space industry, encompassing space-based solar power, in-orbit manufacturing, asteroid mining, and more.[9] In the United States, this trend reflects the culmination of a decades-long shift from government-led space operations to a commercially driven space ecosystem.[10] Internationally, other major space‑faring nations, including China and India, are also actively pursuing policies to expand their domestic commercial space economies.[11][12]

Third, the diversification of space stakeholders. The fall in launch costs and the commercialization of space have enabled the participation of a range of new space players. In recent years, traditionally “non‑spacefaring” nations across continents have established dedicated space agencies one after the other, such as Egypt, Philippines, Portugal, Turkey, Saudi Arabia, and Kenya.[13] Even non-state actors like universities and high schools are sending their own space missions, often through services provided by private space companies.[14]

Despite the not uncommon belief that “there is no law in space” or that space is governed by other bodies of law (e.g. the law of the sea), space law is real.[15] Currently, the foundation of the international governance framework governing space activities is the four major international treaties that came into force between 1967 and 1984.[16] These treaties are (i) Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies (Outer Space Treaty), (ii) Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space (Rescue Agreement), (iii) Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects (Liability Convention), and (iv) Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space (Registration Convention).

While the four treaties were concluded at a time when the principal space stakeholders were superpowers, the drafters included prescient language with an expectation that space activities may expand in the future. For instance, the Outer Space Treaty explicitly requires State authorization and continuing supervision of “activities of non-governmental entities in outer space.”[17] By agreeing to carry out space activities “in accordance with international law,” States also agreed to a regime that allows for the incorporation of new international norms.[18]

Nonetheless, with the rapidly changing space industry, there are significant challenges and gaps in the global space governance framework that could severely jeopardize all future space operations. For example, the exponential rise in space activities has also created orbital debris. Of the 35,000 tracked objects in orbit, 75% are junk, such as discarded satellites or rockets, not to mention the 130 million pieces of small debris that cannot be tracked.[19] However, there is no existing binding international law on the mitigation of space debris. Relatedly, with more spacecraft traveling across Earth’s orbits, there is also a pressing need to develop a space traffic management system, akin to the International Civil Aviation Organization for aircraft. Moreover, as space missions become more complex and reach further into the Solar System, new issues are arising, ranging from the use of artificial intelligence in space missions and the exploitation of natural resources on other celestial bodies to the militarization of space, planetary defense, and the search for extraterrestrial intelligence. All of these problems will demand fresh thinking and innovative ideas from today’s policymakers, legal practitioners, and law students who are passionate and curious about this ever-changing domain.

Against this backdrop, the Stanford Space Law Society (SSLS) was established in 2024 with a mission to generate a positive impact in the legal and policy discourse of outer space affairs.

Indeed, Stanford has long been at the forefront of human advancements in space. Many early astronauts, including Sally Ride and Mae Jemison, the first American woman and first African American woman in space respectively, were Stanford graduates.[20][21] Many more were involved in cutting-edge space missions in the US and abroad—the Hubble Space Telescope, Space Shuttle, the International Space Station.[22] CubeSats—standardized, economic satellites that measure ten centimeters on every side and have a mass of around two kilograms—were first developed as a student project in the late 1990s by Bob Twiggs, a Stanford graduate and then‑consulting professor in the Space Systems Development Laboratory.[23] By 2023, around 2,300 CubeSats had been launched, with an estimated market size of over 500 million USD in 2024.[24]

As we enter the “New Space” age, the time has come for Stanford Law School to play its part. This is the impetus that formed SSLS. Over the past year, we began creating a community of law students passionate about making a difference in humanity’s expansion into space. We hosted academics and practitioners from Asia, Europe, and North America to speak about space development. We sent delegations to conferences to exchange ideas and collaborated with other Stanford organizations, such as the Stanford Students Space Initiative, to broaden our outreach. Through these activities, it became increasingly evident that more ought to be done. We noticed that for some, “space law” was still perceived as esoteric or irrelevant. For some, while “space law” is a captivating proposition, it is unclear where or how to begin learning about the subject. For others, space remains confined to people with highly technical expertise. Yet, it is imperative for policymakers and thinkers to keep abreast of breakthroughs in space and, more importantly, contribute to its discourse.

Thus, SSLS decided to create a formal platform—Space Law & Policy Perspectives—to generate and share insights about the cutting-edge developments in space. Our positioning of “Space Law & Policy” rather than only “Space Law” is intentional. To begin with, there is no convenient line to demarcate space law and space policy. The pressing issues in space will require the creation of new governance frameworks that demand inputs from both the domains of law and policy. Moreover, the broader positioning allows us to feature more voices on our platform. Too often, publications premised on “law” seem inaccessible or limited to legal academics and lawyers. However, many issues in space cannot be resolved in a siloed manner. Space, space objects, and human interaction with space all possess unique characteristics—the unfathomable vastness of outer space, the extremely high velocities at which objects travel, and the biological frailties of the human body outside Earth’s atmosphere. Consequently, thinking about these topics and resolving their challenges will require knowledge far exceeding the law alone. By featuring accessible yet still academically rigorous articles of shorter length, our publication is designed to balance between enabling a timely release of the latest topics in space while also retaining analytical precision.

In our inaugural edition, we have attempted to move towards the goals of presenting a diversity of space-related issues and enabling cross-disciplinary dialogue. The four articles selected showcase different topics in contemporary space governance and are written by authors from all walks of life. We encourage anyone interested in space law or policy—whether a space industry expert, space lawyer, start-up founder, academic, or law student—to follow their example, step outside the box, and grapple with the fascinating issues that lie in the cosmos.

Finally, I am honored to share this moment with the 2024-25 Executive Board of the Stanford Space Law Society: Sam Potter, our Founding President and co-Editor-in-Chief of the inaugural edition of Space Law & Policy Perspectives, Kalon Joseph Boston, our Founding Vice President, Radhey Soundarya Gnanesh, who inspired the creation of the publication, and Ruchira Naik, our Masters of Laws student representative.

We conclude with the unofficial motto of our Society, adapted from an adage often attributed to Socrates: Ascende Supra Terram (“ascend above the Earth”).[25]

* Cody is a second-year JD student at Stanford Law School who serves as the President of the Stanford Space Law Society as well as the Co-Editor-in-Chief of Volume 62 of Stanford Journal of International Law.

[1] Edouard Mathieu, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser, “Annual Number of Objects Launched into Space,” Our World in Data, 2025, https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20250624-125417/grapher/yearly-number-of-objects-launched-into-outer-space.html.

[2] Id.

[3] Jennifer Chu, “Study: Climate Change Will Reduce the Number of Satellites That Can Safely Orbit in Space,” MIT News, March 10, 2025, https://news.mit.edu/2025/study-climate-change-will-reduce-number-satellites-safely-orbit-space-0310.

[4] Edouard Mathieu, Pablo Rosado, and Max Roser, “Cost of Space Launches to Low Earth Orbit,” Our World in Data, 2025, https://archive.ourworldindata.org/20250624-125417/grapher/cost-space-launches-low-earth-orbit.html.

[5] Malcolm Davis, “The Starship Revolution in Space,” The Strategist, October 17, 2024, https://www.aspistrategist.org.au/the-starship-revolution-in-space/.

[6] Georgina Torbet, “Starlink’s Got Company — and Orbital Overcrowding Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen,” The Verge, April 29, 2025, https://www.theverge.com/space/657113/starlink-amazon-satellites.

[7] “5 Things You Should Know About Space Debris”, United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, February 26, 2024, https://unu.edu/ehs/series/5-things-you-should-know-about-space-debris.

[8] Global Space Launch Activity 2024 (BryceTech, February 15, 2025), https://brycetech.com/reports/report-documents/global-space-launch-activity-2024/#:~:text=BryceTech%20analyzed%20259%20orbital%20launches,for%20about%2070%25%20of%20launches.

[9] Benjamin Chia, “Deep Tech Market Map: The Future of Aerospace and Defense,” Hardware, December 3, 2024, https://www.hardwarefyi.com/resources/deep-tech-market-map-the-future-of-aerospace-and-defense/.

[10] “Lori Garver on the New Space Policy,” National Space Society, February 11, 2010, https://nss.org/lori-garver-on-commercial-space/.

[11] Giulia Interesse, “China’s Space Economy: Opportunities for Businesses and Investors,” China Briefing News, February 4, 2025, https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-opportunities-in-aerospace-and-commercial-space-industries/.

[12] “India Commercial Space Sector,” United States International Trade Administration, September 27, 2024, https://www.trade.gov/market-intelligence/india-commercial-space-sector.

[13] ESPI Report 79 – Emerging Spacefaring Nations – Full Report (European Space Policy Institute, June 2021), 8, https://www.espi.or.at/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/ESPI-Report-79-Emerging-Spacefaring-Nations-Full-Report.pdf.

[14] Yoav Etiel, “Israeli High School Students Launch Nine Miniature Satellites Into Space in ‘Tevel 2’ Project,” The Jerusalem Post, March 15, 2025, https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/article-846126.

[15] Michael J. Listner, “‘The Martian’: Space Law Hits and Misses,” Space Thoughts (blog), October 3, 2015, https://spacethoughtsblog.wordpress.com/2015/10/03/the-martian-space-law-hits-and-misses/.

[16] “Space Law Treaties and Principles,” United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs, accessed August 20, 2025, https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties.html.

[17] Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies article VI, opened for signature January 27, 1967, 610 United Nations Treaty Series 8843 (entered into force October 10, 1967), https://treaties.un.org/doc/Publication/UNTS/Volume%20610/volume-610-I-8843-English.pdf.

[18] Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies article III, id. at 208.

[19] United Nations University Institute for Environment and Human Security, supra note 7.

[20] Lisa Sonne, “The Voyagers,” Stanford Magazine, March 1998, https://stanfordmag.org/contents/the-voyagers#:~:text=Their%20experiences%20track%20NASA’s%20trajectory,was%20the%20first%20American%20woman.

[21] Marisa Mathias, “Mae Jemison,” National Women’s History Museum, accessed August 20, 2025, https://www.womenshistory.org/education-resources/biographies/mae-jemison.

[22] Id.

[23] Andrew Myers, “CubeSat: The Little Satellite That Could,” Stanford University School of Engineering News, June 8, 2022, https://engineering.stanford.edu/news/cubesat-little-satellite-could.

[24] “CubeSat Market Industry Analysis and Forecast (2025-2032),” Stellar Market Research, accessed August 20, 2025, https://www.stellarmr.com/report/CubeSat-Market/2032.

[25] The adage commonly attributed to Socrates is, “Man must rise above the Earth, to the top of the atmosphere and beyond, for only thus will he fully understand the world in which he lives,” though there is no proof Socrates actually said it. (Source: Christopher James Botham, “Man Must Rise Above the Earth, to the Top of the Atmosphere and Beyond, for Only Thus Will He Fully Understand the World in Which He Lives,” On Verticality (blog), January 21, 2020, https://www.onverticality.com/blog/socrates-quote.)