ABSTRACT
Modern society takes for granted the benefits of space. We make easy use of global positioning and remote sensing. Telecommunications is integral to life and business. We have become dependent on space. And it all happens within constraints set by the complexities of space law. Space law matures. Sixty years on from Sputnik I and fifty after the Outer Space Treaty, there is much to satisfy in what has been accomplished. Principles have been established. As it matures space law bifurcates. In the early days of the space age only states were actors. Now private entrepreneurial companies provide many space services. Some early proposals for the development of space law were intriguingly visionary. For political reasons they were also mostly impractical, particularly the setting up of a World Space Authority or something similar. In human space flight the law relating to space tourism must be developed on an international as well as a national basis.
