This Treaty shall be open for signature by all States. This Treaty shall be subject to ratification by the signatory States. In 1958 and 1959, two international committees, the Committee on Space Research (COSPAR) and the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), were established to promote international cooperation in scientific research and promote the use of outer space for peaceful purposes. Today, fifty years ago, the United States, the Soviet Union and the United Kingdom opened a treaty for signature that would become the backbone of international space law.
The problem now is that companies are becoming even more ambitious, and many hope to go beyond simply launching satellites into space. The United States basically contends that such actions are not expressly prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty. The treaty also provides that the exploration of outer space shall be carried out for the benefit of all countries and that space shall be free for exploration and use by all States. The ownership of objects launched into outer space, including objects launched or constructed in a celestial body, and their component parts, is not affected by their presence in outer space or in a celestial body or by their return to Earth.
The OST also declares that space is an area of free use and exploration by all and that it will be the province of all humanity. In the decades following the signing and entry into force of the Outer Space Treaty, several follow-up treaties were signed that expanded on the original. Each State Party to the Treaty that launches or promotes the launch of an object into outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, and each State Party from whose territory or installation an object is launched, is internationally liable for damage to another State Party to the Treaty or to its natural or legal persons for such object or its component parts on Earth, airspace or outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies. These were reconciled during several months of negotiation in the Legal Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, and the resulting document was approved by the United Nations General Assembly in December.
DESIRING to contribute to broad international cooperation in the scientific field and legal aspects of the exploration and use of outer space for peaceful purposes,. But in recent years, experts in space law have been debating its interpretation as more and more companies express interest in extracting space objects in search of resources. The States Parties to the Treaty undertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any object carrying nuclear weapons or any other type of weapons of mass destruction, to install such weapons in celestial bodies, or to park such weapons in outer space in any other way. At the time, many nations were concerned about nuclear weapons and the possibility that outer space would be exploited for military advantages.
Outer Space Treaty, formally Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, (196), an international treaty that obliges the parties to use outer space only for peaceful purposes. CONVINCED that a Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, will promote the Purposes and Principles of the Charter of the United Nations,. .
