Article Peer-Reviewed
Open
Peer Review
Peer Review
Orbital and Suborbital Tourism Challenges—Some Legal Aspects
International and European Union Department, University of War Studies, 00-910 Warsaw, Poland
Received: 25 March 2023 Accepted: 9 June 2023 Published: 14 June 2023
This article is part of the Special Issue Sustainable Tourism.
Abstract
Space tourism is recreational space travel, whether by government vehicles, such as the Russian Soyuz and the International Space Station (ISS), or by vehicles built by private companies. Since the flight of the world’s first space tourist, American businessman Dennis Tito (28 April 2001), space tourism (orbital) has been slowly growing. Orbital space tourism is very expensive, so a number of private companies have decided to concentrate on building much cheaper suborbital vehicles, designed to take passengers to altitudes of up to 100 km. On 4 October 2004, SpaceShipOne, funded by Virgin Galactic and designed by an American engineer, won the X Prize and, in doing so, ushered in a new era of commercial crewed spaceflight and space tourism. Since then, the design and construction of suborbital spacecraft have become increasingly popular. Such ships, in principle, do not have the ability to cross the imaginary 100 km boundary and enter the Cosmos area. However, space tourists can find themselves weightless for a few minutes. In fact, not only technical but legal difficulties have caused suborbital tourism to develop at a slow pace so far. This article concentrates on some legal challenges regarding space tourism, not going into details about states’ politics and international organizations’ activities.
Keywords
space tourism (orbital); suborbital tourism; International Space Station (ISS); near space; space business; space law
Copyright © 2023
Polkowska. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use and distribution provided that the original work is properly cited.
Cite this Article
Polkowska, M. (2023). Orbital and Suborbital Tourism Challenges—Some Legal Aspects. Highlights of Sustainability, 2(2), 100–109. https://doi.org/10.54175/hsustain2020009
References
1.
Waldek, S. (11 October 2022). The Past, Present, and Future of Space Tourism. AFAR. https://www.afar.com/magazine/space-tourism-the-past-present-and-future (accessed 22 May 2023).
2.
Polkowska, M. (2018). Sub-orbital traffic: A new regulatory or non-regulatory discipline. In J. Walulik (Ed.), Harmonizing Regulatory and Antitrust Regimes for International Air Transport (pp. 189–201). Routledge.
3.
Wang, L., Stepchenkova, S., & Kirilenko, A. P. (2021). Will the present younger adults become future orbital space tourists? Tourism Recreation Research, 46(1), 109–123. https://doi.org/10.1080/02508281.2020.1762342
4.
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. (1996). Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies. https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introouterspacetreaty.html (accessed 12 January 2023).
5.
McDowell, J. C. (2018). The edge of space: Revisiting the Karman Line. Acta Astronautica, 151, 668–677. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2018.07.003
6.
Bittencourt Neto, O. O. (2015). Defining the Limits of Outer Space for Regulatory Purposes (p. 31). Springer, 2015.
7.
Fixel, R. W. (1948). The law of aviation (p. 65). Charlottesville.
8.
IAASS. (2021). Near Space – The Quest for a New Legal Frontier. http://iaass.space-safety.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/24/2021/07/IAASS-near-space-the-quest-for-a-new-legal-frontier.pdf (accessed 10 September 2021).
9.
Gaubatz, W. A. (2007). International Certification for Commercial Reusable Space Transportation. In R. S. Jakhu (Ed.), Space law – General Principles (Vol. II, pp. 51–57). Institute of Air and Space Law, McGill University.
10.
Klotz, I. (28 April 2017). Virgin Galactic Aims to Fly Space Tourists in 2018, CEO Says. Space.com.
11.
Associated Press (AP). (20 July 2021). Blue Origin’s Jeff Bezos Reaches Space On First Passenger Flight. Outlook. https://www.outlookindia.com/website/story/world-news-blue-origins-jeff-bezos-reaches-space-on-first-passenger-flight/388847 (accessed 16 March 2023).
12.
O’Callaghan, J. (24 January 2019). 2019 is the year that space tourism finally becomes a reality. No, really. WIRED. https://www.wired.co.uk/article/spacex-blue-origin-space-tourism (accessed 27 August 2020).
13.
Chang, E. Y.-W. (2020). From aviation tourism to suborbital space tourism: A study on tourist screening criteria and business opportunities. Acta Astronautica, 177, 410–420. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.actaastro.2020.07.020
14.
Jakhu, R. S., & Bhattacharya, R. (2002). Legal aspects of space tourism. In Proceedings of the 45th Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space (pp. 112–131). International Institute of Space Law, the International Astronautical Federation.
15.
Chatzipanagiotis, M. (2011). The impact of Liability rules on the development of private commercial human spaceflight. In 62nd International Astronautical Congress 2011 (IAC 2011) (p. 52). International Astronautical Federation.
16.
O’Donnell, D. (2011). The suborbital private space flights may require a law suit to escape benefit sharing. In 62nd International Astronautical Congress 2011 (IAC 2011) (p. 212). International Astronautical Federation.
17.
Dempsey, P. S., & Manoli, M. (2017). Suborbital Flights and the Delimitation of Air Space Vis-À-Vis Outer Space: Functionalism, Spatialism and State Sovereignty. International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety. https://www.mcgill.ca/iasl/files/iasl/suborbital_flights_and_the_delimitation_of_air-outer_space.pdf (accessed 10 September 2021).
18.
Kazemi, H., Mahmoundi, H., & Gloroo, A. A. (2011). Towards a New International Space Liability Regime Alongside the Liability Convention 1971. In 62nd International Astronautical Congress 2011 (IAC 2011) (pp. 272–273). International Astronautical Federation.
19.
Ignatius, D. (2023). With Chinese balloon, a hidden Cold War contest drifted into the open. The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/02/10/china-balloon-unitedstates-surveillance-cold-war (accessed 20 May 2023).
20.
Jakhu, R. S., & Pelton, J. N. (Eds.). (2017). Global Space Governance: An International Study (p. 305). Springer International Publishing. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-54364-2
21.
Mosher, D. (3 December 2020). Alabama rocket startup Aevum just unveiled the world’s biggest drone — a 28-ton autonomous behemoth that may soon rocket US military satellites into orbit. Insider. https://www.businessinsider.com/aevum-unveils-largest-drone-world-ravn-x-rocket-launching-uav-2020-12?IR=T (accessed 14 March 2023).
22.
Forganni, A. (2017). The potential of space tourism for space popularization: An opportunity for the EU Space Policy? Space Policy, 41, 48–52. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.spacepol.2017.04.005
23.
Levi, H. I., & Tsui, W.-H. (2019). The role of Niche Aviation Operations as Tourist Attractions. In A. Graham & F. Dobruszkes (Eds.), Air Transport: a tourism perspective. Elsevier.
24.
Chernykh, I. (14–18 June 2021). International legal regime of future space stations: problems of operation from the legal point of view (p. 1). Global Space Exploration Conference (GLEX 2021), St. Petersburg, Russian.
25.
Chang, K. (16 April 2021). SpaceX Wins NASA $2.9 Billion Contract to Build Moon Lander. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/16/science/spacex-moon-nasa.html (accessed 12 April 2022).
26.
Taiko, I., & Yamazaki, T. (12–14 October 2020). What women need for space travel (IAC-20-B 3.2.9 (x56313), pp. 1–7), 71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) – The Cyber Space Edition.
27.
Hobe, S., Goh, G. M., & Neumann, J. (2007). Space Tourism activities – emerging challenges to air and space law? Journal of Space Law, 33, 359–373.
28.
Yuko, K., Takahashi, Ch., & Yamazaki, T. (12–14 October 2020). Creating a new business of Space Flight Attendant Service and SFA Academy (AC-20-B3.2.10, pp. 1–10). The 71st International Astronautical Congress (IAC) – The Cyberspace Edition.
29.
Anderson R., & Peacock, M. (2010). Ansari X-Prize: A Brief History and Background. NASA. https://history.nasa.gov/x-prize.htm (accessed 12 March 2023).
30.
Jakhu, R. S., & Bhattacharya, R. (2002). Legal Aspects of Space Tourism. In Proceedings of the 44th Colloquium on the Law of Outer Space (pp. 112–131). American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
31.
Nase, V. (2012). Delimitation and the suborbital Passenger: time to prevarication. Journal of Air Law and Commerce, 77(4), 747–767.
32.
Andrade, J. C. P. (12–14 October 2020). Space tourism and Space Law: approach based on the law applicable to astronauts (IAC-E7,1,16,x57317, pp. 1–4). The 71st Intertional Astronautical Congress (IAC) – The CyberSpace Edition.
33.
UBS. (20 July 2021). Future of Space Tourism: Lifting off? Or has COVID-19 stunted adoption? https://www.ubs.com/global/en/investment-bank/in-focus/2021/space-tourism.html (accessed 14 February 2023).
34.
Foust, J. (13 December 2018). Virgin Galactic achieves space on SpaceShipTwo test flight. SpaceNews. https://spacenews.com/virgin-galactic-achieves-space-on-spaceshiptwo-test-flight (accessed 14 February 2023).
35.
Howell, E. (31 March 2021). SpaceShipTwo is Virgin Galactic’s spacecraft designed to take tourists to space. Space. https://www.space.com/19021-spaceshiptwo.html (accessed 12 February 2023).
36.
SpaceX. https://www.spacex.com (accessed 12 March 2023).
37.
Sheetz, M. (8 June 2019). NYC to Shanghai in 40 minutes: SpaceX’s goal for point-to-point space travel. CNBC. https://www.cnbc.com/2019/06/07/nyc-to-shanghai-in-40-minutes-spacexs-goal-for-point-to-point-travel.html (accessed 12 March 2023).
38.
Masson-Zwaan, T. (2010). Regulation of Sub-orbital Space Tourism in Europe: A Role for EU/EASA? Air and Space Law, 35(3), 263–272. https://doi.org/10.54648/aila2010025
39.
United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs. (1971). Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects. https://www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/introliability-convention.html (accessed 23 February 2023).
40.
Maason-Zwaan, T., & Hofmann, M. (2019). Introduction to Space Law (pp. 85–91). Wolters Kluwer.
41.
Hobe, S. (2019). Space Law (pp. 167–168). Baden-Baden.
42.
International Civil Aviation Organization. (9–19 October 2018). United States Suborbital Regime As It Relates To The Use of Civil Aviation Airspace. Thirteenth Air Navigation Conference, Montréal, Canada.
Metrics
Loading...
Journal Menu
Journal Contact
Highlights of Sustainability
Editorial Office
Highlights of Science
Avenida Madrid, 189-195, 3-3
08014 Barcelona, Spain
08014 Barcelona, Spain
Cathy Wang
Managing Editor
