 Hey guys, it's Amy, and you might not think about it, but there is actually a series of laws governing space. Who'da thunk it? Well, space lawyers, that's who. So today on Vintage Space, we are going to do a very brief look at the history of space law. As you can probably imagine, space law was not a thing before the space age began, specifically with the launch of Sputnik on October 4th of 1957. In the early 20th century, once airplanes became a viable means of transportation, airspace laws said that all the countries owned the vertical airspace over their land masses. So it was naturally assumed then that space law would just be an extension of airspace laws that states or countries would govern the airspace going vertically over their land mass into space. The problem is that that would make satellites orbiting the earth illegal. Countries would have to sign off on allowing other countries to have vehicles, namely satellites, in their airspace, even if that airspace was 200 miles above the planet. The thing was, in the mid-1950s, the idea of having a free space over land masses was actually very appealing. So put yourself in the mindset of Cold War paranoia. Both the Soviet Union and the United States are developing missiles, and both countries are knowingly arming themselves against the other, but no one is really sure what exactly is happening in the other country. President Eisenhower actually proposed the Open Skies Treaty. This would allow both the U.S. and the Soviet Union to fly surveillance and reconnaissance flights over the other country, so that each nation would know exactly what the other was doing so that no one was surprised by the number of missiles and bombs the other nation was developing. Now, unsurprisingly, the Soviet Union wasn't too keen on the Open Skies Treaty, but satellites opened up a loophole. See, under airspace laws, the U.S., for example, couldn't do a reconnaissance flight over the Soviet Union because that is violating all kinds of laws. But if a satellite was in orbit, it would eventually pass over the Soviet Union. But if scientists were going to start launching missions on satellites into orbit, those satellites would eventually fly over Soviet airspace and could double up as reconnaissance vehicles. So it was clear that satellites were eventually going to change the game in terms of reconnaissance in the Cold War, and also just generally in the way we treat airspace, but it didn't come to a head until Sputnik's launch. Once the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, even though it was launched under the peaceful banner of the International Geophysical Year, it forced the issue of space law and started opening the gate for the possibility of other satellites to be in orbit doing orbital reconnaissance missions. Sputnik effectively forced the issue of freedom in space, and that meant that space law would have to come into play very quickly. The first iteration came from the United Nations General Assembly. It created an ad hoc committee on the peaceful uses of outer space, and this body is the organization behind five treaties and five principles that govern most of space exploration today. The most important treaty came in 1967. This was the treaty on principles governing the activities of states in the exploration and use of outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies. More simply, this is known as the Outer Space Treaty. Basically, the Outer Space Treaty stipulates that all exploration and use of space must be done for the benefit and the interests of all mankind. No nation is allowed to own a body in space, no nation is allowed to claim any borders in space, there is no weaponry allowed in space. And all nations are responsible for their own activities. In short, that means that no one owns space and we're all in this together, and a few additional treaties really solidified this. In 1968, the Rescue Agreement said that all astronauts in need would be assisted by any nations. The 1972 Liability Convention stipulated that any nation launching a spacecraft is responsible to any bodily harm that might come from that spacecraft. The 1975 Registration Convention kept track of all objects in space, and the Moon Agreement signed in 1979 expanded to say that there could be no property rights on celestial bodies. But this treaty is considered inactive by today's standards because all of the signing nations are not actually active in space. So good, we're still at a point where no one owns space and we're all in this together. But then things change with the advent of commercial space, private space companies, and also companies that want to mine space, namely the moon and asteroids, for resources. And this created some very different laws. In the United States, deep space industries and planetary resources are both looking at potential mining missions. In 2015, the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act allowed for U.S. citizens to exploit asteroids and other space resources. They're legally able to mine and sell the resources once they're back on Earth, but they have no ownership over where those resources are mined from. So say they're mining Helium-3 on the moon. A company can mine that Helium-3 and sell it on Earth, but they don't own the moon. But this kind of complicates things because even though it's legal to mine and sell resources from a body in space that owning that body, it does mean that people are having ownership over something from space, which does violate the Outer Space Treaty. Another thing that's maybe going to complicate things going forward is that the Outer Space Treaty does not extend to include private companies. In 1967, there were no private companies. There was no SpaceX or planetary resources trying to get out into the solar system and bring materials back to sell. Everything's being done by the government, and so that is the language of the treaty. So there might be loopholes in these treaties for private companies to exploit it, and this could start raising issues of borders and boundaries and ownership of land in space. Even though that violates the Outer Space Treaty, it might be maybe fair game for private companies. And none of this takes into account what might happen if humans are involved. What if we colonize Mars and the asteroid belt in a couple hundred years and then have to fight for resources? What kind of space law is going to govern then? This is the kind of thing science fiction loves to deal with because it is a fascinating thought process about what might happen in the future and also raises some really interesting things about the human character. If you want to see one possible outlet of space law, space politics between Earth, Mars, and the asteroid belt, check out SyFy's show The Expanse. It airs every Wednesday night at 10, 9 central, and it's one very interesting look at what might happen to humanity once we start expanding beyond the Earth. And thanks to SyFy for sponsoring this video to help make it possible. So what do you guys think about space law? It's not that old, but do we need to seriously revise it knowing that we've got private companies and eventual expansion of humanity to other planets? Let me know your thoughts in the comments below, and of course, if you have questions, other random comments, and also topics that you would like to see covered in future episodes. Be sure to follow me on Twitter and on Instagram for daily adventure space content. And with new videos going up right here every single week, subscribe so you never miss an episode.