Res Communis

Now Downloadable: USA-193: Selected Documents

by Joanne Irene Gabrynowicz with the blog faculty

The National Center for Remote Sensing, Air and Space Law at the University of Mississippi School of Law, (Center) is pleased to make available  USA-193: Selected Documents. This is the first in a new occasional series, Special Topics in Aerospace Law. The series is being offered as a supplement to the Center’s primary publication, the Journal of Space Law. The Journal of Space Law is the world’s oldest law review dedicated to space law and is available online through HeinOnLine in its Core U.S./Most-Cited Law Journals collection. USA-193: Selected Documents is a compilation of the major documents that were generated by the shooting down of the satellite USA-193 on 20 February 2008, and is being released on the first anniversary of the event.

USA-193 is, itself, an event with critical implications for space law. It is also one in a series of events that, collectively, are raising important, practical space law issues. These events include the reported Chinese ASAT test conducted against the Chinese Fengyuan 1C polar-orbiting weather satellite on 11 January 2007 and the on-orbit collision of the Iridium – 33 and Cosmos 2251 satellites on 10 February 2009. The latter event is the first known occurrence of two bona fide space objects from different Nation-States colliding into one another in open space. Among some of the issues raised by all of these events are determining liability for harm caused in space, in air and on Earth; causing harm to the space environment; and the obligation to inform or warn. Some of the most important issues specifically raised by the USA–193 event emerge from Art. IX of the Outer Space Treaty and include how to define “peaceful purposes” and “potentially harmful interference” as well as what constitutes “appropriate international consultations” before conducting an activity that has the potential for harmful interference with space activities of other States Parties. This compilation is offered to advance the understanding of these, and other important issues.