Legal Niches

George Nield, acting AST chief

Posted on January 14, 2008
I see no announcement or notice on FAA/AST's website but Patti Smith confirms via e-mail that, no surprise, deputy associate administrator Dr. George C. Nield will step in as AST acting associate administrator, as of Feb. 1, 2008. And yes, George will be officiating at next month's big AST event, the 11th FAA Annual Commercial Space Transportation Conference: Roadmap to 2015, Feb...

Patti Grace Smith Rockets On

Posted on January 10, 2008
"Volatus per inane homo privatus." Stamp it on your rocket.And find the translation in the text of FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation Patti Grace Smith's talk, Space Means Business, which she delivered at the Washington Space Business Roundtable last month (Dec...

Space law attractions '08

Posted on January 07, 2008
Space-time flies and the action never stops for space lawyers and friends. Here's a quick scan of selected happenings of interest to the space law and business community in the new year. Much more to follow. Meanwhile, add these to your illustrious 2008 space law calendar and get ready to rocket from Vienna to Virginia, Paris to Phoenix, Mississippi to Nebraska, and over to Toronto, Montreal, Strasbourg, Singapore, Arcachon, Beijing, Cairo, Colorado, Nashville, New York, Rome, Geneva, Glasgow, Washington and beyond...

Last Flybys of '07

Posted on December 28, 2007
Ah, the end of yet another year. Which serves to remind us: Time is nature's way of keeping everything from happening all at once.(It's not working.)Before we ring in '08, a few late December flybys. (Also catch the 2007 year in space roundup on Cosmic Log -- and all the other annual overviews, lists, etc...

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Space seasons greeting

Posted on December 25, 2007
(To think there were no blogs back then on which to post this...:)As we recall every year, in response to the Christmas message from Apollo 8 (MP3) beamed to the planet by astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders, as they orbited the moon in 1968 (reading from Genesis), Houston sent this reply:Twas the night before Christmas and way out in space,the Apollo 8 crew had just won the moon race...

Black Holes and space law consulting

Posted on December 20, 2007
Along with all the buzz about Professor Frans von der Dunk joining the faculty of the University of Nebraska's new space law program, we've also been hearing talk about the private space law consultancy company with the cool name Frans recently launched...

Our kind of market insight

Posted on December 19, 2007
Heh. UBS's moon market humor is making the rounds. (Now in WaPo and elsewhere, yesterday reported on Simberg's TransMu.)Yes, intrepid Wall Street analysts graphed an interesting metric: lunar land prices appear to be a "lead indicator of US house prices...

Weldon's mission to save the shuttle

Posted on December 18, 2007
Here is a video of Congressman Dave Weldon (R-FL) yesterday at Kennedy Space Center announcing his proposal to keep the space shuttle flying after 2010.I have not seen the authorizing bill the representative from Florida?s Space Coast will introduce but he admits right off the pad he does not expect his measure to become law, but rather, says he wants it to spark a national debate over the issue...

We'll always have spaceports

Posted on December 17, 2007
As we've seen, challenges include issues involving taxation, regulation, licensing, legislation, politics and more; and include the catastrophe of a fatal test accident. But Jeff Foust overviews developments on the spaceport front, from Mojave and New Mexico to Cecil Field and Corpus Christi, including Kiruna, Sweden and beyond, and writes, "It?s clear that many people still see great potential in the emerging NewSpace industry, despite the difficulties some companies have experienced in the last few years...

New SIA chair

Posted on December 17, 2007
Yes, it may be "old space" but lawyers and satellites go together. SLP congratulates Jennifer A. Manner, vice president of regulatory affairs for Mobile Satellite Ventures and adjunct professor at Georgetown University Law Center and American University?s Washington College of Law who was elected by the Satellite Industry Association (SIA) to serve as its 2008 chairman...

No spaceport district, no tax

Posted on December 13, 2007
No kidding. The spaceport sales tax the voters of Doņa Ana County approved by referendum in April, to have commenced Jan. 1, 2008, must now go uncollected. As New Mexico Attorney General Gary King opined in a letter this week responding to a bit of understandable confusion, "the county regional spaceport gross receipts tax may not be imposed, collected or enforced absent the formation of a regional spaceport district to which the proceeds of the tax can be allocated...

Space project seeks Texas lawyer

Posted on December 12, 2007
An SLP reader sends the following for posting:*****My name is Christopher Carson, and I am the instigator of the Luna Project, an effort to send humans to live on the Moon, as soon as 2012.Study of the issues has convinced me that this goal can be achieved with existing technologies, through direct support from the space-minded public, and will greatly contribute to practically any future space activity or application...

Old and new space law practice

Posted on December 11, 2007
While the Wall Street Journal's otherwise knowledgeable Law Blog still asks, What the heck is space law?, The National Law Journal, inspired by among other things, this year's series of space investment summits, weighs in this week with the news Space-related practices have lift-off (sub...

Zero G, Zero Tax in Virginia

Posted on December 10, 2007
Virginia is at it again, moving forward with proposed ground-breaking new space law designed to boost commercial space industry. And what better way to encourage business than new tax breaks and incentives. As my pal Jack Kennedy reports over on Spaceports blog, Virginia's Zero G, Zero Tax proposal is on the agenda for endorsement today by the Virginia Joint Commission on Technology and Science (JCOTS)...

Mojave report corrected

Posted on December 07, 2007
Leave it to Professor Reynolds:---------------------------MOJAVE SPACEPORT UPDATE: Earlier I noted a report noted by Rand Simberg and several other space bloggers that the Mojave Space Port was in danger of closure by the FAA. I also emailed Patricia Smith, the FAA's Associate Adminstrator for Commercial Space Transportation...

Civil space policy and the "Spunik moment"

Posted on December 07, 2007
Here is a nice little 30-pager of a stocking stuffer for that civil space policy lover on your holiday shopping list (and who doesn't fit that description?): U.S. Civilian Space Policy Priorities: Reflections 50 Years After Sputnik (Dec. 3, 2007). From the festive folks at Congressional Research Service, who else?I am not sure how much of this is at all revelatory, especially after all the nonstop Sputnik 50th anniversary reflection this year, but basically, CRS overviews:No Sputnik moment, Cold War, or space race exists to help policymakers clarify the goals of the nation?s civilian space program...

Mojave Spaceport Under FAA Scrutiny

Posted on December 06, 2007
Following the fatal accident at Mojave Air and Space Port in July, a big question on the regulatory side was what if anything, would FAA/AST do?Less than a week after the tragic explosion during a test at Mojave that took the lives of three and seriously injured three other Scaled Composites workers, FAA/AST chief Patti Smith told Space News her office would defer to state authorities including California Occupational Safety and Health Administration investigating the accident who, she said, "indicate this was an industrial accident, a fuel-flow test gone terribly wrong...

Euro space station law

Posted on December 05, 2007
As NASA prepares for liftoff of STS-122 scheduled for tomorrow, Dec 6th, the mission to deliver the European Space Agency's Columbus Laboratory to the International Space Station, Jeremy Hsu has a good overview of law on the 4.5-metre diameter cylindrical lab now tucked into cargo bay of the Space Shuttle Atlantis that is to be Europe's "biggest single contribution" to the ISS: Europe Lays Down the Law for New Space Lab...

Just say no humans

Posted on December 04, 2007
Want to really ban humans from Mars? In response to the anti-human provision in NASA funding bill HR 3093 ("Provided, That none of the funds under this heading shall be used for any research, development, or demonstration activities related exclusively to the human exploration of Mars...

Coming Storm

Posted on December 04, 2007
To our collection of holiday party dates and invitations, it's not too early too add, from ProSpace, the "citizens' space lobby dedicated to opening the space frontier," the 2008 March Storm Invitation. Congress is expecting us.------------------Quoting ProSpace quoting Margaret Mead: Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world; indeed, it's the only thing that ever has.

The V-Prize Vision

Posted on December 03, 2007
"V" is for Virginia. And Virginia is for space. Tune in to the Virginia Report, hosted by member of the Virginia House of Delegates, Ken Plum (36th District), for the videocast, Challenge to the Commercial Space Community, (approx. 28 minutes) featuring Washington, D...

Friday Flybys - 11.30.07

Posted on November 30, 2007
First, SLP joins folks around the globe including everybody here in blogspace in congratulating CNSA and the people of China on the success of the lunar probe Chang'e I. And thanks for the lovely Moon image.?? ;)Now, in typically random fashion, the Flybys (and on an actual Friday, yet ...

Luncheon with Patti Grace Smith

Posted on November 29, 2007
Pull up a chair at the Washington Space Business Roundtable lunch on Thursday, Dec. 6th as the always appetizing and nourishing FAA Associate Administrator for Commercial Space Transportation, Patti Grace Smith, fills our space plates with her enriching insights on the tantalizing topic, Future of Commercial Space...

"Law or war"

Posted on November 28, 2007
As the ice melts, simmering international tensions over the frostbitten Artic heat up.This week in Wired, journalist Richard Morgan worries that "what has gone unnoticed amid the international clamor is that the Arctic battle has implications that reach far beyond the top of Earth...

Sundahl on The Space Show

Posted on November 27, 2007
That's right, another space lawyer lights up The Space Show. If you missed last Monday's edition of the Show (Nov. 19, 2007) featuring the illustrious Dr. Mark Sundahl talking about, you guessed it, UNIDROIT and the Space Assets Protocol to the Cape Town Convention on International Interests in Mobile Equipment, along with of course other juicy topics in space law, no worries, you can listen now...