The availability of a new form of financing for commercial space activities: the extension of the Cape Town Convention to space assets

Abstract

The third and latest Protocol to the Cape Town Convention, on Matters specific to Space Assets, was opened to signature in Berlin on 9 March 2012, at the conclusion of a diplomatic Conference held at the kind invitation of the Government of Germany. Three of the 40 States represented at the Conference, namely Burkina Faso, Saudi Arabia and Zimbabwe, signed the Protocol at the closing ceremony of the Conference. The new Protocol will enter into force—and, with it, the Cape Town Convention as applied to space assets—on the later of the date of the deposit of the tenth instrument of ratification, acceptance, approval or accession and the date of the deposit by the Supervisory Authority with the Depositary of a certificate confirming that the International Registry for space assets is fully operational. In this article the author, first, reports on the Berlin Conference, focusing in particular on the principal issues that fell to be resolved at the Conference, secondly, recounts the history of the project, th...