Conditions for the Harmonization of National Mechanisms to Promote Space Commerce in Asia
- Paper number
IAC-09.E8.4.8
- Author
Prof. Setsuko Aoki, Keio University, Japan
- Year
2009
- Abstract
Space commerce is the established part of the national space activities for at least two Asian Countries: China and India. China entered into a commercial launch market around the turn of the 1990's, and China-Brazil Earth Resources Satellite (CBERS) project started the commercial data distribution in 2004. While the full-fledged national space laws have not been enacted, administrative regulations on the registration of space objects and commercial launching, adopted in 2001 and 2002 respectively, have been functioning to promote China’s launching business. Tiered space cooperation frameworks such as APSCO and AP-MCSTA as well as bilateral cooperative agreements with, e.g., Brazil, Nigeria and Venezuela also help China develop its space commerce. India is the leading country in Asia in the field of remote sensing data sales, and it also started the launching business in 2007 through the commercial arm of the ISRO, ANTRIX Corporation, Limited. Not as successful as China or India, other two countries in Asia should not be ignored for the possible development in space commerce. Korea became the first in this region to enact the domestic space law to promote the space activities in 2005. Two years later, the second law on the third party liability was also enacted. Japan, one of the space-faring nations, just started the commercialization with the privatization of the once JAXA-owned H-IIA rocket in 2007. Following its first national space law, or Basic Space Law in 2008, Japan is now in the process of making the next law to provide for the comprehensive licensing system, liability regime, and other necessary regulations to promote space commerce. This paper compares the national mechanisms of the four of the leading Asian countries in space commercialization and studies the degree of the importance to enact national legislation to advance space industrialization. Then, the paper also addresses the conditions for the harmonization in domestic space laws, regulations and mechanisms among China, India, Korea and Japan to lead the future Asian development in space commerce.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
(absent)