Applicability of the Rescue Agreement to Space Tourists

The legislative history of the Rescue Agreement and the Outer Space Treaty indicated that the persons who could travel to outer space were only astronauts or personnel of spacecrafts when these agreements were drafted,so space tourists can’t fall into the categories of“astronauts” and“personnel” in the Outer Space Treaty and the Rescue Agreement. From the perspective of humanitarianism,whenever lives in space shuttles are facing emergency,they should have the right to be aided. However, international community should establish new international legislations to broadly interpret the definition of“astronauts” and “personnel” or establish the status of on space tourist.