The Concept of the 'Launching State' Revisited

발사국의 개념재고

Commercialization and privatization of outer space has been developing to the extent that public space law regime established at the UN seems to be somewhat incompatible with the today' s commercial launching services. Thus, this paper analyzes, at first, the UN space treaties to specify the obstacles for promoting commercial use. The necessity of some covert amendment of UN treaties is suggested through the national space legislation. Then three state practices are examined to propose a new concept of the "launching state" including the Sea Launch project, since the concept of the "launching state" is of the major importance to enact an effective national act to better accommodate UN space treaties to the present necessity.