UPDATE July 13th: CMSEO announced Tiangong-2 is slated to re-enter on July 19th. Beijing has been silent about the Tiangong-2 space station, which is supposed to be reentering the atmosphere this month. The China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO) announced the controlled reentry of Tiangong-2 in July 2019. The decision was reportedly made on September […]
Read more "What’s Going on with Tiangong-2?"Space policy circles and the media are flush with the idea of space weapons and an arms race in outer space. Most of this is attention comes from political factions to rail the policies of the current President but it also comes from geopolitical rivals who seek to use the issue as a soft-power bludgeon […]
Read more "Defining the Indefinable: Obscenity and Space Weapons"The National Geographic Channel debuted its second season of the series “Mars” on November 12, 2018. The series picks in the second season with the International Mars Science Foundation settlement, Olympus Town, firmly established and attempts to introduce space law to weave into the plot. Unfortunately, like the last attempt to articulate space law in […]
Read more "National Geographic “Mars” and More Space Law Missteps"Finding myself with a brief interlude between projects the events of the past few weeks and in particular the announcement of the effort to create a sixth branch of the military focusing on outer space and the effort to create a manual for “rules” for military operations in outer space have prompted this post. My […]
Read more "Thoughts on “Being First”, Dominance and Outer Space"Space Thoughts has been inactive for awhile due mainly to time constraints and other writing commitments. I am looking forward to this blog and making more updates soon. -MJL
Read more "An Update…"While there are many issues that occupy my thoughts about commercial space, one that I find particularly tedious is the issue of safety. A colleague of mine is noted for his views on “safety” and wrote a book, which I recommend you read regardless of your views on the issue, but my ire is directed […]
Read more "It’s Time to Shatter the Illusion of “Safety” in Spaceflight."The 60th anniversary of Sputnik-1 by the Soviet Union is rightfully recognized as marking a significant step in the space age, but equally important is its contribution to space law in that essentially brought space law out of theory and into practice. Up until that time, there were two conflicting views of the accessibility of […]
Read more "Sputnik, Space Law and the Future of Custom"Originally posted on RealSpaceStrategy:
? Recently, I heard a future military leader (someone who should have known better) use the following words in a sentence…”We create our enemies.” Up to that point I was listening and finding much of what was said to be different but not worth engaging. Upon hearing this, however, I had…
I did a short (less than 20 minutes) video on the topic of space resources. You can find the video on Space Law and Policy Solution’s Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/spacelawpolicy/videos/812383192261718
Read more "Space Resources"The federal district court for the Eastern District of Virginia ruled in the above matter on July 12, 2017. I did a short video on the Court’s Order in this matter. The link to the video on YouTube can be found here. Also, I’ve uploaded the Order on DARPA Motion to Dismiss The Order makes […]
Read more "Orbital ATK v. Walker (DARPA)"
Space Thoughts 