Legal aspect of space activities in international context

Abstract

Land is considered as limited and consumable asset which should be managed with the sustainable development approach. Today, economic, social and cultural activities of humans on the land have obviously increased due to advances in technologies and globalization trends. These rapid developments have caused environmental, housing, food and energy resources management problems. The main requirement for efficient and effective land management is qualified, reliable, correct and up-to-date land information. Especially, space technologies that enable to obtain land related data have provided many opportunities to manage land resources and human activities in local, regional and global context. Communication, earth observation, navigation and meteorology services are among the main usage areas of space technologies for land management purposes. With the rapid advances in science and technology, space has begun to be seen as a new resources area. Space tourism and space mining are emerging as the new topics. All these developments have been transforming space into a commercial and industrial target as well. With the national space program in Turkey, our country has started new studies to develop space abilities. As known geomatics engineering has play key role in organizations that perform many different services by using the space technology products. In this context, local and global initiatives have an effect on our profession. Therefore, it is important to understand current legal regime in this area. In this study, main international agreements concerning space activities under the United Nations are summarized and the role of the International Telecommunication Union on allocation of satellite orbit is mentioned.
1. INTRODUCTION
Space law, which is considered as a sub-branch of international law, is the field of law that regulates studies and activities in outer space. Space law mainly consists of international agreements approved among states under the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and national laws.
Space law has emerged as a result of human efforts to launch artificial satellites into earth orbits. It can be stated that the launch of World’s first artificial satellite Sputnik-1 into earth orbit in 1957 by Soviet Union is the starting point of legal studies aimed at regulating activities in outer space in the international context. In the following years, several international agreements concerning outer space activities were adopted by the UNGA (Can 2017). The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 which was signed under The UNGA can be stated as the basis legal document which conducts ac