ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of how spaceflight came to be a reality, of the key technical concepts needed to understand many important issues, and of the industry's directions in the future, along with a number of references for further reading. However, the history of that expansion to date does hold some lessons for the space lawyer and for government and industry officials concerned with issues of space law. Solid rockets contain powdered fuel and oxidizer cast in a plastic or glue-like compound. Liquid fueled engines typically use liquid oxygen or nitric acid as an oxidizer, with kerosene or liquid hydrogen as the fuel. Since research and development are critical to corporate survival, and since space has been identified as a likely site for the activities in the future, commercial concerns in the mid-1980s began to express some anxiety about the applicability of US patent law to space activities.
