On Sept. 3, 2016, the Federal Aviation Administration authorized the first private space mission beyond the Earth’s orbit. The authorization permits Moon Express, Inc., a private space entity, to conduct an unmanned mission to the moon in 2017 in order to mine its resources. Shortly thereafter, Elon Musk, founder of SpaceX, unveiled plans to begin colonizing Mars within 10 years, while President Obama opined that similar colonization efforts could realistically commence by 2030. Meanwhile, Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and Google’s Larry Page have joined numerous other investors in creating their own commercial space entities.
The rapid growth of the commercial space industry—which just 15 years ago revolved primarily around sending the rich and famous into space—can largely be traced to Nov. 25, 2015, when President Obama signed into law the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act. The act is intended to clear many of the legal roadblocks standing in the way of space innovation. By way of example, the act allows companies to experiment for a learning period of eight years before the FAA and other agencies will install industry standards. In addition, experimental, multi-use flight permits are available for purposes of testing reusable rockets. As a further incentive, the act includes “launch liability indemnification,” which requires the government to partially indemnify private space entities for any third-party damages caused by their space activities.
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