Orbital Data Centres: Who Licenses Them and Whose Law Applies to the Data
Are orbital data centres legal? Who licenses them, whose data law applies in orbit, and who carries the risk as the FCC weighs up to 1.24 million satellites.
Regulatory watch
Trump’s Declaration of Freedom in Space: What the Proclamation Changes and What It Leaves UndoneThe FCC Says Satellites Are Outside NEPA: What the New Order Changes and Where It Is ExposedThe FCC Wants to Auction the Weather Satellite Band: What the 1675-1695 MHz Proposal MeansThe EU Space Act’s New Council Text: A Narrower Defence Carve-Out, Self-Certification and ‘Verification’ for Foreign OperatorsChina’s Outer Space Governance Position: Ten Points on Arms Control, Sanctions and Commercial SatellitesCanada Wants a Space Act: One Licence per Mission, Insurance Powers and a Single WindowFCC Part 100, Round Two: Experimental Licences, a US Control Point and Who Gets a Vacated GSO SlotReflect Orbital’s Space Mirror: The FCC Licensed the Radio, Not the SunlightTrump’s Declaration of Freedom in Space: What the Proclamation Changes and What It Leaves UndoneThe FCC Says Satellites Are Outside NEPA: What the New Order Changes and Where It Is ExposedThe FCC Wants to Auction the Weather Satellite Band: What the 1675-1695 MHz Proposal MeansThe EU Space Act’s New Council Text: A Narrower Defence Carve-Out, Self-Certification and ‘Verification’ for Foreign OperatorsChina’s Outer Space Governance Position: Ten Points on Arms Control, Sanctions and Commercial SatellitesCanada Wants a Space Act: One Licence per Mission, Insurance Powers and a Single WindowFCC Part 100, Round Two: Experimental Licences, a US Control Point and Who Gets a Vacated GSO SlotReflect Orbital’s Space Mirror: The FCC Licensed the Radio, Not the Sunlight
The law above the atmosphere
Latest
What we are reading and writing this week
Is Asteroid Mining Legal? The Treaties, Four National Laws and the UN’s New Draft
Is asteroid mining legal? What the Outer Space Treaty, four national laws and the UN's September 2026 draft principles say about owning…
The FCC Says Satellites Are Outside NEPA: What the New Order Changes and Where It Is Exposed
The FCC NEPA order puts satellite launch and operation outside environmental review. What changes, what survives and where a court challenge could…
Is It Legal for a Satellite to Shadow Another? Cosmos 2612 and the Law of Proximity Operations
Is it legal for a satellite to shadow another? How the Outer Space Treaty and FCC and NOAA rules apply to proximity…
Who Owns the Geostationary Orbit? The Bogota Declaration and Colombia’s Contested Claim
Who owns the geostationary orbit? The 1976 Bogota Declaration, Article II, the ITU's equitable access rules and Colombia's contested 2024 declaration.
The FCC Wants to Auction the Weather Satellite Band: What the 1675-1695 MHz Proposal Means
The FCC voted on 29 October to propose auctioning 1675-1695 MHz, the band NOAA's GOES weather satellites use, for 5G and direct-to-device…
Is It Legal to Own a Moon Rock? Apollo Samples, Meteorites and the Cases That Decided Them
Is it legal to own a moon rock? Why Apollo samples stay federal property, what the Davis and Carlson cases decided and…
Insights
Analysis, not press releases
Long form work on the questions the sector argues about: who owns what, who pays when things go wrong, and which rulebook applies where.
Commercial Space9 min read
Inventions Made in Space: The Unsettled Law of Orbital Innovation
Inventions made in space raise unsettled patent questions: registry states, ISS modules, NASA contracts, AI inventors and orbital data centres.
Explainers18 min read
18 min
Anti-Satellite Weapons: Does International Law Limit Them, and How Do They Affect Space Law?
Are anti-satellite weapons legal? How the Outer Space Treaty, UN Charter and IHL limit ASAT weapons, from Fengyun-1C to the 2026 US on-orbit weapons.
Commercial Space13 min read
13 min
ISS Retirement in 2030: The Deorbit Plan and What Replaces It
NASA still plans to bring the ISS down at the end of 2030, using a $843 million SpaceX deorbit vehicle it will own. But a Senate…
Insights8 min read
8 min
Who Owns What on the Moon? Article II, the Artemis Accords and Space Resources
Nobody can own the Moon and everyone agrees on that. Whether a company owns the regolith it digs is unsettled, and how it gets settled decides…
Insights7 min read
7 min
Space Debris Liability: Who Pays When Satellites Collide
The Liability Convention applies a fault standard to orbital collisions and never defines fault. That gap is why no claim has ever been brought for a…
Regulatory updates
What changed, and who it binds
Case notes
Where space law met a decision maker
Space law 101
Start here if the field is new to you
Plain English explainers on the treaties, the licensing regimes and the career routes into the practice.
What Happens If Space Junk Hits Your House? Who Pays, and What NASA Paid in Florida
What happens if space junk hits your house? Who pays, what home insurance covers, why the treaty may not help, and what…
Is Asteroid Mining Legal? The Treaties, Four National Laws and the UN’s New Draft
Is asteroid mining legal? What the Outer Space Treaty, four national laws and the UN's September 2026 draft principles say about owning…
Is It Legal for a Satellite to Shadow Another? Cosmos 2612 and the Law of Proximity Operations
Is it legal for a satellite to shadow another? How the Outer Space Treaty and FCC and NOAA rules apply to proximity…
Commercial space
The business of space, read through its contracts
Launch services agreements, insurance, spectrum and export control. Where the money and the risk actually sit.
Orbital Data Centres: Who Licenses Them and Whose Law Applies to the Data
Are orbital data centres legal? Who licenses them, whose data law applies in orbit, and who carries the risk as the FCC…
Inventions Made in Space: The Unsettled Law of Orbital Innovation
Inventions made in space raise unsettled patent questions: registry states, ISS modules, NASA contracts, AI inventors and orbital data centres.
Space Burial: Is It Legal to Send Ashes to Space, and Who Regulates It?
Space burial explained: why sending ashes to space is legal, how the FAA reviews memorial payloads, the Navajo objection and what happens…
Opinion
Argued positions, clearly labelled
Where we think space governance is going, and where it is stuck. Signed opinion, not reporting.
Opinion13 min read
A Robot Tried to Save a NASA Telescope. US Law Still Has No Box for What It Was Doing
Katalyst's attempt to capture and boost NASA's Swift observatory was called off in August. It had every licence US law asks for, and none for the part that mattered: approaching and grabbing someone else's…
Interviews
The people doing the work
Conversations with regulators, in-house counsel, operators, insurers and academics on how the rules land in practice.
Introducing the Space Law Journal Interview Series
We are looking for regulators, in-house counsel, underwriters and academics. Here is what we ask, how the process runs, and why you…
Resources
Every space regulator worth bookmarking, in one place
A checked directory of the licensing authorities, treaty bodies, registers and primary rule texts that govern activity in orbit. Links go straight to the official page, not a summary of it.
International
UNOOSA: Space Law
The UN office that services the space treaties and publishes treaty texts, national laws and capacity building material.
www.unoosa.org United StatesFAA Office of Commercial Space Transportation
Issues launch, reentry, launch site and reentry site licences and experimental permits under 14 CFR Part 450.
www.faa.gov European UnionEuropean Commission DG DEFIS: EU Space Act
The official page for the proposed regulation on the safety, resilience and sustainability of space activities.
defence-industry-space.ec.europa.eu United StatesFCC Space Bureau
Licenses satellite systems and earth stations and attaches orbital debris and spectrum sharing conditions.
www.fcc.gov IndiaIN-SPACe
The single window authorisation and supervisory body for non-government space activity under the Indian Space Policy 2023.
www.inspace.gov.in InternationalITU Radiocommunication Sector: Space Services
Records satellite frequency and orbital slot filings and runs the coordination and notification procedures.
www.itu.intSubmissions
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