失效航天器移除面临的若干法律问题

Some Legal Issues on Removal of Defunct Spacecraft

失效航天器的移除不仅涉及复杂的技术问题,而且面临着诸多法律问题,有必要从国际法视角加以审视。失效航天器法律地位的确定是厘清失效航天器移除权利义务关系问题的前提,失效航天器属于空间碎片和空间物体的范畴。登记国或发射国是失效航天器移除的合法主体,非发射国在特定条件下也可以对失效航天器进行移除。《空间碎片减缓指南》虽对失效航天器的移除作了规定,但其没有法律约束力,因此,失效航天器移除义务具有非强制性。

Removal of defunct spacecraft involves not only complex technical problems,but also many legal problems,which are needed to be examined under international law.The determination of the legal status of the defunct spacecraft is the premise of clarification of the relationship between the rights and obligations in removal of the defunct spacecraft.The defunct spacecraft belong to the category of space debris and space objects.The state of registration or the launching state is the legal subject of the removal of the defunct spacecraft,and the non-launching state may also remove the defunct spacecraft under certain conditions.Although the Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines have provided regulation for the removal of defunct spacecraft,they are not legally binding.Therefore,removal of defunct spacecraft is non-mandatory.