Limiting Space Liability And Insurance For Indian Start-ups

India does not have an established space policy governing liability and insurance issues. The pending Space Activities Bill, 2017 and the draft Space Based Communications Policy, 2020 hold private entities solely liable for any damage caused due to space operations. This creates an undue burden on start-ups and discourages them from taking on additional space operations. In this piece, we offer suggestions to limit space liability and insurance from an Indian start-up perspective.

Background

In India, currently there is no domestic space policy governing issues of space liability and insurance. As a result, there is no policy governing the extent to which private entities are liable for damage caused to third parties or to space assets due to their space operations. Both, the pending Space Activities Bill, 2017 and the recently released draft Space Based Communications Policy, 2020 hold private entities liable for any damage caused due to its space operations, and