International Space Agency (ISA) - International Space Station (ISS)
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International Space Station (ISS) 16 Member Nations
The International Space Station is a co-operative program between the
United States, Russia, Europe, Canada, and Japan for the joint
development, operation, utilization of a permanently inhabited Space
Station in low Earth orbit. The legal framework defines the rights &
obligations of each of the countries jurisdiction and control with
respect to their Space Station elements.
International Space Station (ISS) Agreements
The International Space Station legal framework is built on three
levels of international co-operation agreements.
The International Space Station Intergovernmental Agreement, often
referred to as 'the IGA', is an international treaty signed on January
29, 1998 by the fifteen governments involved in the Space Station
project.* This key government-level document establishes 'a long term
international co-operative frame-work on the basis of genuine
partnership, for the detailed design, development, operation, and
utilization of a permanently inhabited civil Space Station for peaceful
purposes, in accordance with international law' (Article 1);
Four Memoranda of Understandings (MoUs) between the National
Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and each co-operating Space
Agency: European Space Agency (ESA), Canadian Space Agency (CSA),
Rosviakosmos (RKA), and Japanese Space Agency (NASDA). The objective
of these space agencies-level agreements is to describe in details the
roles and responsibilities of the agencies in the design, development
operation and utilization of the Station. In addition, the agreements
serve to establish the management structure and Interfaces necessary to
ensure effectively the utilization of the Station;
Various bilateral Implementing Arrangements between the space agencies
have been established to implement the Memoranda of Understandings. The
Arrangements distribute concrete guidelines and tasks among the
national agencies.
*The Intergovernmental Agreement, establishing the International Space
Station cooperative framework, has been signed by fifteen governments:
the United States of America, Canada, Japan, the Russian Federation,
and eleven Member States of the European Space Agency (Belgium,
Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Spain,
Sweden, Switzerland, and the United Kingdom of Great Britain and
Northern Ireland).
Who owns the International Space Station (ISS)?
The Intergovernmental Agreement allows the Space Station Partners
States to extend their national jurisdiction in outer space, so the
elements they provide (e.g. laboratories) are assimilated to the
territories of the Partners States.
The basic rule is that 'each partner shall retain jurisdiction and
control over the elements it registers and over personnel in or on the
Space Station who are its nationals' (Article 5 of the
Intergovernmental Agreement).
This means that the owners of the Space Station - the United States,
Russia, the European Partner, Japan and Canada - are legally
responsible for the respective elements they provide. The European
States are being treated as one homogenous entity, called the European
Partner on the Space Station. But any of the European States may extend
their respective national laws and regulations to the European
elements, equipment and personnel.
This extension of national jurisdiction determines what laws are
applicable for activities occurring on a Partner 's Space Station
elements (e.g. European law in the European Columbus Laboratory). This
legal regime recognizes the jurisdiction of the Partner States courts
and allows the application of national laws in such areas as criminal
matters, liability issues, and protection of intellectual property
rights. Any conflicts of jurisdiction between the Partners may be
resolved through the application of other rules and procedures already
developed nationally and internationally.
Who is liable in case something goes wrong?
The International Space Station legal framework recognizes fundamental
liability rules concerning space activities, set forth in international
space law treaties, such as the Liability Convention (1972) ,and it
goes even further.
The Intergovernmental Agreement establish a 'cross-waiver of liability'
which prohibits any of the five Partners or their related entities
(contractor, sub-contractor, user, customer) to claim against another
Partner (or its related entities) for damage sustained as a result of
International Space Station activities (Article 16 of the
Intergovernmental Agreement). Each Partner is required to implement
this obligation in the contracts with its own contractors and
sub-contractors.
Some exceptions to the Space Station cross-waiver of liability exist.
For instance, claims arising between a Partner and its own related
entities, for example between the European Space Agency and one of its
users, will be covered by contracts or sub-contracts that will not
implicate the other international Partners.
Other exceptions to the cross-waiver of liability include claims for
damages caused by willful misconduct, claims made by a person for
bodily injury or death, intellectual property claims.
In practice, Space Station users will be asked to agree to an
interparty waiver of liability as part of their contract with the
European Space Agency, stating that each party will not bring claims in
arbitration or sue the other party as a result of International Space
Station activities. The applicable law for disputes and the detailed
procedures in case of arbitration will be decided mutually by the Space
Station users and Member Nantions. The contract will specify the
country where the Arbitration Tribunal shall sit, normally in the
country where the user has his legal seat.
Protection of intellectual property rights?
The main objective of the Space Station Partners concerning property
rights is to avoid the infringement of rights owned by another Partner
and their entities (e.g. contractors, subcontractors, users).
In order to mitigate the risk of potential infringement, the Space
Station Partners have agreed to create specific marking procedures to
protect the proprietary and confidentiality of each other's data and
goods. But the Space Station users should be aware that those
procedures have to take into account the obligation the Partners have
to exchange specific technical data and goods when necessary, to
operate and utilize the Space Station in a safe manner (Article 19 of
the Intergovernmental Agreement).
Therefore, each space agency and its affiliates - any industry or
academic institution under contract - have the obligation to mark their
technical data or goods with a notice that indicates any specific
conditions regarding how those data or goods may be used by other
agencies, their contractors and subcontractors.
The marking rules protect also third-party intellectual property
rights. Any third party proprietary data, which may be required in
order for the Partners to carry out their responsibilities, or which
may be derived from an experiment, will also be properly marked and
protected. The specific procedures to protect the Partners' and their
customers' data and goods are still in the process of being developed
by the Space Station Multilateral Co-ordination Board, which comprises
representatives of each Partner.
Those procedures cover all personnel, including ground and Station
crew. The Crew Code of Conduct, agreed on by the Partners in September
2000, sets specific rules and a chain of command for the astronauts &
cosmonauts. Some specific regulations concerning the handling of data
and goods by the Space Station crewmembers have been included in the
Code of Conduct, which contribute to protect the intellectual property
rights of Space Station users.
If an infringement of intellectual property were the cause of a claim
for damages, legal proceedings would have to be taken against the
infringing party. Those claims would be made according to the
parties' respective national legal regimes for intellectual property.
Because of the particular situation of the European Partner and to
prevent simultaneous claims in multiple European countries, some
specific provisions are provided in the Intergovernmental
Agreement(Article 21).
Who owns the intellectual property derived from International Space
Station utilization?
As a rule, the industrial and academic users who will have access to
the Space Station through the European Space Agency will have their
rights and obligations determined by the contractual framework they
will have agreed on with the Agency.
The ownership and the exploitation of any intellectual property - data
or product - resulting from the Space Station utilization will then
be highly dependent on the type of contract the users will have signed
with ESA. But the general Space Station framework sets already the
following principles for intellectual property rights.
In the event an invention occurs on the Space Station, the country of
inventorship will be determined by the ownership and registry of the
Station's element in which the invention has taken place (Article 21
of the Intergovernmental Agreement). For example, an invention made on
a Japanese Element (e.g. Kibo Laboratory) will be deemed to have
occurred in Japan.
This does not impact the ownership of the invention, not does it
preclude the right to file for a patent in multiple countries. An
inventor may file for a patent in any country he chooses. For example a
European researcher inventing a process resulting from his experiment
in the Kibo Laboratory (Japanese territory), may file for a patent
anywhere in the world to protect his invention. The purpose of the
territorial approach (e.g. Japanese components of the Station =
Japanese territory) is only to determine the location and country where
the invention took place.
With respect to the European elements (e.g. Columbus Laboratory), any
European Partner State may extend its national law to the European
elements and elect to deem the activity to have occurred within its
territory. In theory, an invention occurring in the European Laboratory
could then be deemed to have occurred in France or Germany. An inventor
having used the European Columbus Laboratory facilities may file for a
patent anywhere in the world to protect his invention, but he will need
to choose one of the European Partner States' territories to
determine where his invention originally took place.
International Space Station (ISS) Member Nations
Country Specific Web Sites & Contact Information
________________________________________________
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
National Aeronautics & Space Administration - N.A.S.A.
N.A.S.A. Official Website: http://www.nasa.gov
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
NASA Headquarters
Washington, DC 20546
Phone: 202-358-0000
Email: info-...@hq.nasa.gov
Email: public-i...@hq.nasa.gov
NASA - ISS WEB LINK #1:
http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/station
NASA - ISS WEB LINK #2:
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
NASA - ISS LOCATION & TRACKING:
http://science.nasa.gov/temp/stationloc.html
________________________________________________
THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION
Russian Federal Space Agency - Pockocmoc (Roscosmos)
Roscosmos Official Website 1: http://www.roscosmos.ru
Roscosmos Official Website 2: http://www.federalspace.ru
Roscosmos Official Website (English):
http://www.roscosmos.ru/index.asp?Lang=ENG
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òåëåôîíó: +7 (095) 688-90-63
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îòâåòà: we...@federalspace.ru
îòâåòà: cosm...@roscosmos.ru
Pockocmoc - ISS WEB LINK #1:
No Link To Be Found? If Known Please Let ISA Know, Thanks!
Pockocmoc - ISS WEB LINK ?!:
(Not-Official) (Russian Space Web)
http://www.russianspaceweb.com/iss_russia.html
Pockocmoc - ISS LOCATION & TRACKING:
http://www.roscosmos.ru/MIOP1file2.asp
________________________________________________
THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITY ( 12 MEMBER NATIONS )
European Space Agency - E.S.A.
E.S.A. Official Website: http://www.esa.int
European Space Agency
8-10 rue Mario Nikis
75738 Paris Cedex 15
France
Tel: +33 1 5369 7654
Fax: +33 1 5369 7560
Email: conta...@esa.int
ESA - ISS WEB LINK #1:
http://www.esa.int/esaHS/iss.html
ESA - ISS WEB LINK #2:
http://esamultimedia.esa.int/multimedia/esa_iss_assembly_sequence/index_pop.html
ESA - ISS LOCATION & TRACKING:
http://esa.heavens-above.com/esa/iss_step1.asp?nored=1
________________________________________________
JAPAN
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency - J.A.X.A.
JAXA Official Website: http://www.jaxa.jp
JAXA Official Website (English): http://www.jaxa.jp/index_e.html
Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency
7-44-1 Jindaiji Higashi-machi, Chofu-shi,
Tokyo 182-8522 Japan
Phone +81-3-6266-6400
Phone +81-3-6266-6249
Phone +81-3-6266-6114
Phone +81-3-6266-6061
Email: None are published?
JAXA - ISS WEB LINK #1:
http://www.jaxa.jp/missions/projects/iss_human/index_j.html
JAXA - ISS WEB LINK #1 (English):
http://www.jaxa.jp/missions/projects/iss_human/iss/index_e.html
________________________________________________
BRAZIL
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais - I.N.P.E.
INPE Official Website: http://www.inpe.br
INPE Official Website (English): http://www.inpe.br/english
Instituto Nacional de Pesquisas Espaciais (INPE)
São José dos Campos - SP
Av. dos Astronautas, 1758 - Jardim da Granja
CEP 12227-010
Caixa Postal 515 - CEP 12201-970
Phone: 55-12-345-6000
Fax: 55-12-322- 9285
Email: pet...@dem.inpe.br
îòâåòà: dir...@dir.inpe.br
INPE - ISS WEB LINK #1:
http://www.iss.inpe.br/
INPE - ISS WEB LINK #1 (English):
http://www.iss.inpe.br/ingles/default.htm
________________________________________________
CANADA
Canadian Space Agency - C.S.A.
C.S.A. Official Website: http://www.space.gc.ca
Canadian Space Agency
CSA Headquarters
John H. Chapman Space Centre
6767 Route de l'Aéroport
Longueuil, Quebec J3Y 8Y9
Tel.: (450) 926-4800
Fax: (450) 926-4352
Email: webm...@space.gc.ca
CSA - ISS WEB LINK #1 (English):
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/iss/default.asp
CSA - ISS WEB LINK #1 (French):
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/fr/iss/default.asp?session=ok
CSA - ISS LOCATION & TRACKING:
http://www.space.gc.ca/asc/eng/iss/where.asp