UK Space Industry Bill: Second Commons Reading
On Monday 15 January, the 2nd anniversary of British ESA astronaut Tim Peake’s historic spacewalk, the House of Commons debated the Space...
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Dr Thomas Cheney
Lecturer in Space Governance
Using legal geography and environmental humanities to better understanding space resources, space exploration, space settlement and more!
thomcheney
- Dec 22, 2017
- 2 min
Happy Holidays: Some End of Year Thoughts
2017 has been an interesting and exciting year in the world of space law and policy. It was, of course, the 50th anniversary of the Outer...
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thomcheney
- Dec 15, 2017
- 6 min
UK Space Industry Bill: A Missed Opportunity to Promote British Space Mining?
The UK Space Industry Bill has now passed the House of Lords and is on its way to the House of Commons, the date for its second reading...
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thomcheney
- Oct 30, 2017
- 5 min
What is a Space Object?
There was a recent article on Space.com[1] discussing the definition of a satellite. The article was very good but didn’t discuss the...
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thomcheney
- Oct 23, 2017
- 3 min
AI? Robot? AMA? Thinking About Definitions
Like any good science fiction nerd, I have long had an interest in robots and artificial intelligence. As the moral, legal and political...
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thomcheney
- Oct 16, 2017
- 4 min
Sentinel 5P and Brexit
Notice the flag in the upper left… On Friday Sentinel-5P was launched. The British press were keen to emphasise that it was ‘British...
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thomcheney
- Sep 22, 2017
- 9 min
Some Thoughts on Nuclear Weapons or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Like the Ban
I am not an expert on nuclear weapons, nor do I claim to be. I am however a citizen of a democracy, and in particular one which has a...
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thomcheney
- Sep 15, 2017
- 5 min
Space Law and Space Mining
This week I attended the fourth meeting of The Hague Space Resources Governance Working Group[1] (I am an observer). After the...
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thomcheney
- Sep 10, 2017
- 6 min
Building a ‘Space Nation’
Between Asgardia[1] and Elon Musk inspired talk of Mars colonies, there has been quite a bit of discussion of colonization of space and...
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thomcheney
- Jul 21, 2017
- 4 min
Luxembourg’s New Space Law
Luxembourg has become the second nation, the first in Europe, to provide a legal framework for space resource utilization activities...
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thomcheney
- Jul 3, 2017
- 2 min
UK Space Industry Bill
The Space Industry Bill[1] was announced as part of the Queen’s Speech on 21 June 2017. It received its first reading in the House of...
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thomcheney
- May 8, 2017
- 5 min
Commons Science and Technology Select Committee Review of UK Draft Spaceflight Bill
The Commons Select Committee on Science and Technology recently conducted an enquiry into the UK Draft Spaceflight Bill[1] and have now...
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thomcheney
- May 1, 2017
- 3 min
“Reopening the American Frontier”
Last Wednesday US Senator Ted Cruz, a man who is quite clearly a space enthusiast, chaired a hearing on “Reopening the American Frontier:...
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thomcheney
- Apr 7, 2017
- 5 min
Space Law at the UN
I spent the past week in a windowless room in Vienna, and had a really interesting and enjoyable time. I went as part of the SGAC...
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thomcheney
- Mar 20, 2017
- 5 min
Space Law in the City of Light
This past Friday I had the good fortune to attend the ECSL[1] Practitioners’ Forum at ESA headquarters in Paris. This is the third...
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thomcheney
- Mar 6, 2017
- 7 min
Spexit: What Does Brexit Mean for the UK’s Place in Space? Part 2
This is the second of what will probably be three posts on the consequences of Brexit on the UK Space Sector. The first post served as a...
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thomcheney
- Feb 27, 2017
- 4 min
UK Spaceflight Act 2017
A UK spaceport has been on the horizon for a few years now and there are number of different sites scattered throughout the UK that have...
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thomcheney
- Feb 6, 2017
- 7 min
Spexit: What Does Brexit Mean for the UK’s Place in Space? Part 1
This was originally intended to be a single post largely derived from a presentation I gave at a conference on ‘The Impact of the 2016...
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thomcheney
- Jan 27, 2017
- 4 min
The Outer Space Treaty at Fifty
The Outer Space Treaty (OST), frequently described as the ‘constitution’ or cornerstone of space law, was opened for signature fifty...
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thomcheney
- Jan 21, 2017
- 1 min
New Year, New Blog
A new year always seems like a good time to start a new project and this represents the more successful of my notions for a new year...
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