CEO Update: Law’s final frontier – Bartier Perry & Space Law

In late September, Sydney hosted the world’s largest and most prestigious gathering for the space community.

The 76th International Astronautical Congress saw 10,000 delegates from the global space industry come together, with the Bartier Perry space law team among them.

Space law is an emerging area of practice, and an increasingly important one, as Australia looks to play a greater role in the sector.

So why the need for legal advice, and why has Bartier Perry been growing its practice in this area?

Well by way of just one example Bartier Perry Partner Darren Gardner highlights that:

“Right now there are more than 8,000 satellites orbiting the Earth. These satellites play a critical role in global communications, security and infrastructure. Who is responsible, though, if a discarded or disabled satellite crashes onto your property or business?”

NASA admitted last year that debris from the International Space Station was partly responsible for destroying a house in Florida. In Australia, wreckage from a SpaceX flight landed in a remote part of South Australia in 2022.

And it is in South Australia where successive Federal Governments have been looking to build the nation’s capacity to launch rockets, as the number of orbiting satellites is forecast to soar to as high as 65,000 by 2030, generating $1.5 trillion in revenue globally.

This growing investment will see a range of other legal challenges, including:

• Insurance requirements against launch failures

• Negotiating complex cross-border contracts

• Protecting space-related innovation and IP

• Addressing liability issues, such as dust disease, when simulating lunar environments

The challenge for Australia’s space law sector, says Bartier Perry Partner Jason Sprague will be balancing regulation with innovation:

“Space is an evolving area and there’s a view within government that they might stifle involvement if they clamp down too harshly – especially when it’s already an expensive sector to enter.”

And with space tourism expected to grow exponentially in the coming decades, as our partner Gerard Basha highlighted when speaking at the Congress, even wills and estate planning come into play – from what legal jurisdiction or law governs someone dying in space through to whether burials or ashes in space might constitute contamination.

For Bartier Perry, advising on the complexities of space law draws on our current expertise but remains a relatively unique offering within the Australian legal landscape.

We believe our work in this area will, in turn, bring new perspectives and solutions to our clients – who are a little more down to Earth.