Cross-waiver of liability

A cross-waiver of liability is a standard clause in space launch contracts under which each participating party, the state or agency authorizing the launch, the launch provider, the satellite operator and its customers, waives any claim against the other parties for damage it or its property suffers in connection with the launch, regardless of fault. Each party thus bears its own risk and that of its subcontractors, and covers it through first-party insurance rather than relying on recourse against a liable third party. This mechanism, required under several national regulatory frameworks as a condition for granting a launch license, prevents every space incident from turning into prolonged litigation over apportioning fault among multiple interdependent technical parties, which would be especially complex in an activity where the cause of a failure can remain disputed for months. For insurers, the clause shifts the analysis from cross liability risk toward a stack of first-party damage covers for each party, simplifying the insurance structure of a launch campaign but leaving each participant responsible for properly assessing and insuring its own risk, with no recourse safety net in the event of under-insurance.

Since the adoption of the US Commercial Space Launch Act in 1984, every launch license issued in the United States has required a cross-waiver between the government, the launch provider and the payload operator, each bearing its own damage with no recourse against the other parties.

cross-waiver of liability, clause de renonciation croisée, inter-party waiver