Space law gives one answer to who owns a dead satellite and another to who has jurisdiction over it. This lesson separates the two.
In partnership with the Space Debris Foundation
For education only, not legal advice. Law as at November 2026.
Space law gives one answer to who owns a dead satellite and another to who has jurisdiction over it. This lesson separates the two.
International space law rests on five UN treaties, which bind the states that join them. The debris guidelines in Lesson 4 are different: they are soft law, binding on no one by themselves.
The Outer Space Treaty keeps apart ideas that everyday language runs together.
A space object includes its component parts, its launch vehicle and that vehicle's parts (Liability Convention Art. I(d); Registration Convention Art. I(b)). So when a satellite breaks up, the pieces stay under its state of registry's jurisdiction, even if that state cannot find or control them.
"A dead satellite has been abandoned, so anyone can collect it."
Space law recognises no abandonment and no right of salvage. Jurisdiction does not lapse, so removing another state's object needs that state's consent.
"A company's satellite is the company's business alone."
Internationally, a state answers for its national activities in space, including its companies' (OST Art. VI). Which state can be debated at the edges, but it is a state, not the company.
ESA lost contact with Envisat in 2012. The 8-tonne satellite is still in orbit, and still ESA's. Next: who pays when debris does damage?