Laws and principles
Treaties, national statutes, executive instruments and non-binding principles that address who may use space resources and on what terms.
Binding treaties and statutes are listed separately from political commitments and draft principles. Party and signatory counts carry the date they were checked.
International treaties
2Moon Agreement (1979)
UN treaty that declares the Moon and its natural resources the common heritage of mankind, bars property rights in natural resources in place, and commits its parties to establish an international…
Outer Space Treaty (1967)
UN treaty that sets the basic rules for space activities: no national appropriation of the Moon or other celestial bodies (Art. II), freedom of exploration and use (Art. I), and state responsibility…
National statutes
6Japan: Act on Launching of Spacecraft, etc. and Control of Spacecraft (Space Activities Act, Act No. 76 of 2016)
Japan's general space activities licensing law. Art. 20(1) requires a Prime Minister's permit for each satellite managed from ground equipment in Japan; the 2021 Space Resources Act attaches space…
Japan: Act on the Promotion of Business Activities Related to the Exploration and Development of Space Resources (Act No. 83 of 2021)
Japanese statute that adds a space resources business-activity plan to the satellite-management permit of the Space Activities Act, requires the Prime Minister to publish permits, and provides that a…
Luxembourg Law of 20 July 2017 on the exploration and use of space resources
Luxembourg statute providing that space resources are capable of being owned and requiring a written mission authorisation from the ministers in charge of the economy and space activities for any…
U.S. Commercial Space Launch Activities (51 U.S.C. chapter 509) - payload review authority
U.S. launch and reentry licensing statute administered by the FAA. Section 50904(c) is the basis for FAA payload reviews of payloads that need no other federal license; it is the mechanism used for…
U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act of 2015, Title IV (Space Resource Exploration and Utilization Act of 2015)
U.S. statute (Pub. L. 114-90, Title IV) providing that a U.S. citizen engaged in commercial recovery of a space resource is entitled to resources obtained, in accordance with applicable law and U.S.…
UAE Federal Law No. 12 of 2019 on the Regulation of the Space Sector (space resources provisions)
UAE federal space law that brought space resource exploration, extraction, exploitation and use within its permitting regime (Art. 18) and left the conditions to a Council of Ministers decision…
Executive instruments
2U.S. Executive Order 13914 (6 April 2020): Encouraging International Support for the Recovery and Use of Space Resources
Presidential executive order stating U.S. policy that Americans should have the right to engage in commercial exploration, recovery and use of space resources consistent with applicable law, that the…
U.S. Executive Order 14335 (13 August 2025): Enabling Competition in the Commercial Space Industry - Sec. 5 novel space activity authorization
Executive order directing the Secretary of Commerce to propose an individualized mission authorization process for activities covered by OST Art. VI that no existing U.S. regulatory framework clearly…
Multilateral principles
1Artemis Accords (2020)
Non-binding political commitments among signatory states on civil exploration of the Moon, Mars, comets and asteroids. Section 10 affirms that space resource extraction does not inherently constitute…
Non-binding guidance
2Hague International Space Resources Governance Working Group: Building Blocks for the Development of an International Framework on Space Resource Activities (2019)
Non-binding building blocks adopted on 12 November 2019 by a multi-stakeholder working group (governments, industry, academia) to guide development of an international framework; submitted to the…
UN COPUOS Legal Subcommittee Working Group on Legal Aspects of Space Resource Activities (draft initial recommended principles)
Intergovernmental working group of the UN COPUOS Legal Subcommittee mandated to develop a set of initial recommended principles for space resource activities. As of September 2026 it has produced…