Comparative Study on the Licensing System of Outer Space

The outer space activities are creative, strategic and highly risky, determining that these activities need control and supervision. This leads to the creation of the licensing system of outer space. The licensing system of outer space is subject to both international and national laws. Most space powers in the world have promulgated their domestic space law and provided corresponding regulations. Due to different circumstances of the countries, legislations are different to some extent. However, behind the differences, there are still some similarities. These similarities can be summarized as follows: compliance with international obligations, emphasis on security measures and environmental protection, and insurance requirement. Compared with these space powers in the world, the licensing system of China still needs to be improved in applicable scope, legislative levels and specific provisions. Therefore, China should learn from the legislations of other counties. To specify, China should expand the scope of its legislations, improve the levels of its legislations, increase the operability of its legislations and enhance the procedural guarantees of its licensing system of outer space.