ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the nature of launch services agreements (LSA) and addresses the provisions or clauses dictated by the specifics. The first LSA that may be considered a commercial contract, that is to say those proposed for consideration by National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) to non-governmental customers. Launch services comprise the manufacture or procurement, delivery and assembly on the launch base of the launcher used to perform the launch, this launcher remaining the property of the launch services providers (LSP). LSAs provide for the obligation of the LSP to take out an insurance covering the liability assumed by states as launching states under the Convention on International Liability for Damages Caused by Space Objects. The financial and technical risks inherent to launch activities are such that without the clauses of limitation of the contractual obligation and allocation of liabilities and risks, the launch services market would never have been able to emerge and develop as it has.
