Legal status of unused space objects: An impregnable fortress or a province of all mankind

Nowadays, the rapid development of space technologies enables States to place their facilities in outer space with a view to exercise effective exploration and use of space and space resources. The Outer Space Treaty stipulates several conditions for such use. In practice these obligations may be violated when State has no anymore intention or no possibility to utilize its space object, due to this fact issues of the future legal status of such object are arising. Having an ownership of space object, State in the case of abandonment such object may sometimes have contradiction interactions with other space-faring States’ rights as well as with principles of exploration and use of outer space. Specifically, it refers to the certain areas of outer space, e.g. geostationary orbit or surface of celestial bodies, which are limited natural resources. To resolve potential legal problems with unutilized facilities and space objects this article will be aimed at analyzing differences between unused objects in motion (in outer space) and stationary ones (on celestial bodies). Moreover, it has provided a deeper legal insight into the issue and proposed several practice solutions on the base of sustainable development approach. It could be obligation to remove such an object after it had been used as well as transfer of its ownership of such an object to another State. In certain circumstances it can be acceptable for another State to start utilizing the unused space object for ensuring the freedom of exploration and use of outer space. © 2021, Univelt Inc. All rights reserved.