Space Resources
Orbit Fab to donate regolith to lunar resources trust
Orbit Fab, a startup that is developing an infrastructure for in-space refueling of spacecraft, announced plans to purchase a small amount of lunar regolith and transfer it to a trust to promote sustainable management of lunar resources.
Former Momentus CTO reveals competing space logistics venture
TransAstra, a startup founded by Joel Sercel, the former Momentus chief technology officer, is raising money for a competing space logistics venture.
Japan passes space resources law
Japan’s parliament approved legislation that allows companies to extract and utilize space resources as the head of Russia’s space agency criticized similar national laws on the subject.
New Zealand signs Artemis Accords
The New Zealand government announced May 31 that it had signed the U.S.-led Artemis Accords governing best practices for space exploration activities, showing a particular interest in the document’s stance on space resources.
NASA selects four companies for lunar sample purchases
NASA has made awards to four companies worth exactly $25,001 to obtain lunar samples, part of an effort by the agency to establish a precedent for ownership and use of space resources.
NASA offers to buy lunar samples to set space resources precedent
NASA is offering to buy lunar samples collected by companies for a token sum primarily to set a precedent for space resource rights on the moon.
NASA announces Artemis Accords for international cooperation in lunar exploration
NASA will ask countries that seek to cooperate on the agency’s Artemis lunar exploration program to follow a series of principles that the agency says is intended to support a “safe, prosperous and peaceful” future in space.
White House looks for international support for space resource rights
An executive order by the White House April 6 seeks to establish international support for the U.S. position that space resources can be used by companies and organizations, and to head off alternative international legal regimes.
Lunar exploration providing new impetus for space resources legal debate
Efforts by space agencies and companies to send missions to the moon and use water ice and other resources there have renewed debate about the international legal regime regarding such resources.
United States and Luxembourg sign space cooperation agreement
The governments of the United States and Luxembourg, two of the biggest proponents of space commercialization, signed an agreement May 10 that could lead to greater cooperation between the two countries on a variety of space initiatives.
Deep Space Industries acquired by Bradford Space
Deep Space Industries (DSI), a company founded to pursue asteroid mining but which more recently has focused on smallsats, has been acquired by another space technology company.
Space Law Workshop exposes rift in legal community over national authority to sanction space mining
“The problem is there is currently not legal certainty about what is allowed and what is not allowed,” said Tanja Masson-Zwaan, former president of the International Institute of Space Law (IISL).
Luxembourg adopts space resources law
The government of Luxembourg has passed a bill giving companies the rights to space resources they extract from asteroids or other celestial bodies.
New law and space agency to support Luxembourg’s space resources ambitions
The government of Luxembourg expects to soon have in place both a new national space law and a national space agency, two key steps in the small European country’s outsized contribution to the development of a space resources industry.
Congress Defends Commercial Space Bill’s Resource Rights Provisions
With the biggest commercial space bill in more than a decade now signed into law, members of Congress and their staffs are now turning their attention to reports required by the new law as well as other legislation.
