A. GENERAL BACKGROUND "The foremost goal of the international community
in the area [of private space launch services] should be to induce
states to implement effective licensing procedures applicable to
commercial ventures for which state responsibility may 1 exist. " 1.
PRIVATE SECTOR PARTICIPATION IN THE SPACE INDUSTRY In the first decades
of the space age, military and state security motivations indicated the
direction of national space programs. Now the development of space
activities depends essentially upon the possibility of recovering 2
investments. Private sector-driven commercial endeavors in outer space
have been increasing exponentially and have experienced a significant
quantitative growth over the last years. Spacefarers promote commercial
participation of private companies in operations related to outer space,
and, thus, the private sector is now increasingly providing satellite
telecommunications, remote sensing, global positioning and space launch
services directly to its customers. In this context, overall revenues
for the worldwide space industry 3 amounted to US$ 82 billion in 2001.
In the late 1990's the transponder demand, in particular Ku- band
transponders, was consistently on the rise due 4 to the escalated
utilization of geostationary satellite transponders. Global positioning
systems have been playing an increasingly important role in navigation,
and remote sensing systems are mapping and documenting nearly 1 E. A.
Frankle & E. J. Steptoe, "Legal Considerations Affecting Commercial
Space Launches From International Territory", (1999) 50 IISL at 10.
Emphasis added. 2 H. L.
