ABSTRACT
Space exploration is the scientific study of the universe beyond Earth’s atmosphere using space technology and astronomy. It is important for humans as by exploring space we might get new perspective of the solar system and this will be helpful in the future when the earth becomes an unfit place to live. It is also important because it gives us a better understanding of solar system, help us monitor environmental threats, leads to the development of many technologies that we use today, such as satellites, GPS, etc. So, it become a wide area of interest and therefore many countries started to explore the space. To regulate these activities and to preserve the environment, many international space laws , convention and agreement were created and enforced by the United Nations. Therefore, this article explores the various space activities carried out by the various countries and various agreements signed by the countries for the peaceful exploration of space.
INTRODUCTION
Space exploration gained momentum as Earth’s conditions worsened, beginning with the 1957 launch of the first satellite. Initially, space exploration was motivated more by Cold War rivalry between the Soviet Union and the United States than by advancing human knowledge. The Cold War began after Nazi Germany’s surrender in 1945, with tensions escalating between the Soviet Union and the U.S.-British alliance. By 1947-48, the Soviets established leftist governments in Eastern Europe, while the U.S. countered with the Marshall Plan to strengthen Western Europe against communist influence.[1]
The two superpowers of those eras have been fighting with each other for a long time with many important things such as developing atomic weapons, military, etc which have the power to bring a drastic change in the human race. One such important thing is the space race because of which space exploration has begun and developed all these years through which we get to have a chance to live in outer space when the earth reaches its saturation level and becomes an unfit place for humans to live.
The space race began with the development of the first intercontinental ballistic missile, the R7, designed by Soviet engineer Sergei Korolev. On October 4, 1957, the USSR launched Sputnik, the first artificial satellite, which sent radio signals that confirmed its orbit around Earth. A month later, the Soviets launched Sputnik 2, carrying a dog named Laika. Concerned by Soviet advances, the U.S. successfully launched its own satellite, Explorer, on January 31, 1958. That same year, the U.S. consolidated its space efforts under a new agency, NASA.
The Soviet Union achieved major space milestones by becoming the first to launch a spacecraft to the moon in 1959, sending the first human, Yuri Gagarin, into orbit in 1961, and later launching the first female astronaut, Valentina Tereshkova[2]. Although the U.S. initially lagged, it made significant advances with the Apollo missions, including the 1969 moon landing by Neil Armstrong on Apollo 11, which gathered lunar samples. During the 1960s and 1970s, the U.S. also launched Mariner missions to study Venus, Mars, and Mercury. In 1981, it launched the first space shuttle, Columbia. A major milestone in international cooperation came with the assembly of the International Space Station by agencies from the U.S., Russia, Japan, Canada, and Europe.
As many space activities began space laws have been introduced to govern space-related activities. Space law contains a variety of instruments such as international treaties, agreements such as bilateral and multilateral agreements, United Nations general assembly resolutions for preventing the space exploitation, international conventions and other rules and regulations. Space law is mainly around and is implemented through five international treaties and five principles governing the space through which it addresses the rescue of astronauts, sharing of technology which have been found through space exploration for the betterment of earth environment , for improving international coordination, cooperation and unity in the exploration of cosmos, for sharing potential danger identified in the space, settling disputes between countries regarding space and for fixing liability for the damages caused by countries during space exploration.
As a starting point United Nations office for outer space affairs (UNOOSA) was formed under the United Nations organisations for promoting peaceful use of space. One of the most important agreement is the International space station intergovernmental agreement (IGA) which was signed on January 29, 1998 between 15 countries for building a long-term partnership for carry out the project of civil space station in space. This has been as an important agreement as through this agreement the first space station was launched in the space by the collaborative effect of five countries and the unity between the countries in space exploration have been improved. The five important treaties which have been signed for the peace exploration of space ,rescue of astronauts, safety of space activities , for fixing liability damages, to prevent harmful activities which could interference space exploration are The Outer Space Treaty, The Rescue Agreement, The Liability Convention, The Registration Conventionand The Moon Agreement. The five principles of international space law are the declaration of legal principle, the broadcasting principles, the remote sensing principles, the nuclear power sources principles and the benefits declaration[3]. They were also many conferences held such as UNISPACE I ,UNISPACE II and UNISPACE III for the improvement for space exploration.
[1]Cold Conflict, WWII THE NATIONAL WWII MUSEUM,https://www.Nationalww2museum.org/war/articles/cold-conflict
[2]Rebecca Sohn , Yuri Gagarin: Facts about the first human in space, space.com, (Jan 11 ,2024), https://www.space.com/16159-first-man-in-space.html
[3]Vladmir Kopal, Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, https://legal.un.org/avl/ha/tos/tos.html