National space activity license
The regime by which a state licenses a private operator, requires financial security and caps its liability, taking the excess onto the public purse.
June 3, 2008: France passes its Space Operations Act, which requires an authorization for any launch from its territory or by a French operator. The 1967 Treaty makes a state internationally responsible for the space activities of its private nationals. It must therefore authorize and supervise them, or else answer without limit for acts it does not control. The national statutes that follow all share the same structure: a prior license conditional on technical requirements, a compulsory insurance or financial security of a set amount, and a ceiling above which the state assumes the burden itself. That last element amounts to a public guarantee of last resort. The ceiling is the decisive variable for the market: it defines precisely the layer insurance must carry, and beyond it no private capacity is called for. The French space operations act of June 3, 2008 illustrates the mechanism, with a state guarantee responding above a ceiling set in the budget act. The American regime rests on a license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration and on a maximum probable loss computed mission by mission. For an underwriter, reading the license before the policy is the only way to know which layer actually needs cover.
The French space operations act of June 3, 2008 makes any operation conducted from national territory or by a French operator subject to a license, with a compulsory insurance obligation. It provides for a state guarantee above a ceiling set in the budget act.
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