Perseverance is about to land!

NASA’s Perseverance rover will complete its 300 million mile journey to Mars this Thursday, February 18.  You can watch the rover’s final descent live online at approximately 12:55 p.m. PST.  After “seven minutes of harrowing descent,” the rover will land in the Jezero Crater, an ancient lake-delta system.  If this gets you excited to learn more about space law, check out these electronic resources in our library collection:

Space Law – this 5-volume treatise, available on Westlaw, includes the full texts of multilateral space treaties, selected bilateral space treaties to which the U.S. is a party, as well as soft law instruments and model codes of conduct in space adopted by various inter-governmental organizations. It also includes compilations of national laws and policies pertaining to the use of outer space enacted by the U.S. and by 31 other jurisdictions. For the U.S. and Canada, it includes selected judicial decisions pertaining to outer space.

International Space Law – this research review covers the development, character and structure of international space law, its relationship with national space law, and military and commercial aspects of space activities, including launching and satellite applications.

Routledge Handbook of Space Law – this handbook takes a topical approach, examining how space-related activities are governed by international treaties, soft law instruments, and national regulations. In doing so, it highlights gaps and inconsistencies in the existing law and emerging legal issues.

Global Space Governance: An International Study – this interdisciplinary study offers a comprehensive overview of the evolution and development of the system of space law governance, including relevant treaties, IGOs, and NGOs. It also identifies shortcomings in the current regulatory regime and examines potential improvements and alternatives.

Commercial Uses of Space and Space Tourism – combines the perspectives of academics, policy makers and major industry players around three central themes connected to commercial spacefaring: the international legal challenges posed by the dramatic changes to the spacefaring landscape through privatization and commercialization; the corresponding legal and regulatory responses to these challenges at the national level; and related topical questions of global space governance.

The Rise of Private Actors in the Space Sector – this book provides a broad set of information and data on the rise of private actors in the space sector, organized into different topics covering the various trends that have shaped the space sector during the last decade.