Foreword
Before you lies the 29th volume of the series ‘Studies in Space Law’ in regard of which I had the pleasure of acting as series editor. It addresses one of the most topical and important issues currently keeping the space law community both busy and excited: that of private commercial human spaceflight and, in particular, the subsector part thereof focusing on ‘suborbital’ (as it is usually labelled) or, as this book argues at many places, more appropriately ‘non-orbital’ human spaceflight operations. This volume originated in a workshop hosted by Professor Irmgard Marboe at the University of Vienna, Austria, in October 2023, crowning several years of academic discussions in the context of the Space Law Committee of the International Law Association (ila) chaired by Professor Stephan Hobe of the University of Cologne. That it took considerably longer to edit this volume than anticipated was a clear sign of the topicality of the subject matter and the moving target it presented in many ways, as the opening up of near regions of outer space to other humans than the ‘classical’ astronauts is now witnessing milestone after milestone. Combining the insights of leading authors and experts under the guidance of Professor Marboe and Professor Hobe who acted as editors, this volume indeed now provides a rather comprehensive sample sheet of the legal issues surrounding these exciting new ventures. This ranges from more overarching discussions of the extents to which space respectively air law could, would, or should be applied and the never-ending search for a boundary between airspace and outer space to more focused topics such as authorisation, supervision, liability, and registration. Also, in this sense, the present volume is a fitting conclusion to my editorship of the series of which I am very proud: a comprehensive, challenging, both theoretically and practically well-developed multi-authored treatise on one of the most visible aspects of the new space age.
Professor Dr. Frans G. von der Dunk
Series Editor, Studies in Space Law