Space Defence Bill Prepared For First Reading

The State Duma defence committee has prepared a bill "On the creation and use of space technology in the interests of defence and security." The bill defines the legal norms regulating the design, creation and use of space technology of military and dual-purpose to increase the effectiveness of the army and other military forces in war and peacetime. According to the bill, Russia has an inalienable right to build and use such apparatus for its own and collective security in the face of attack by a foreign power and also to fulfil Russia's international commitments in the defence and security sphere. The bill includes legal norms on the use of space centres in foreign countries, rocket launches from the world's oceans, including the order of establishing temporary bans as regards navigation, aircraft traffic, landings and splash-downs. The bill also sets the level of damages incurred in the period of the creation and use of military and dual-purpose space technology.