The regime by which a state licenses a private operator, requires financial security and caps its liability, taking the excess onto the public purse.
The 1967 Treaty makes a state internationally responsible for the space activities of its private nationals, which obliges it to authorize and supervise them or else answer without limit for acts it does not control. The national statutes that follow all organize the same three parts: 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, which amounts to a public guarantee of last resort. That ceiling is the decisive variable for the market, since it defines precisely the layer insurance must carry and beyond which no private capacity is called for. The French space operations act of 3 June 2008 illustrates the mechanism, with a state guarantee responding above a ceiling set in the budget act, while the American regime rests on a license issued by the federal aviation authority 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 is actually to be covered.
The French space operations act of 3 June 2008 makes any operation conducted from national territory or by a French operator subject to a license carrying a compulsory insurance obligation, and provides for a state guarantee above a ceiling set in the budget act.
licence d'opération spatiale, loi sur les opérations spatiales, space licensing, LOS