New law on space sector in the works

A law that would organise the UAE’s space sector is in the works, according to a statement that the Federal National Council’s (FNC) General Secretariat issued on Sunday. The statement said a discussion on the law concluded recently.

The FNC’s technical affairs, energy and mineral resources committee had held the session, headed by the committee chairman Mohamed Ali Kamali, at the FNC headquarters in Dubai. They discussed the 55 articles that would comprise a federal law on the space sector.

According to Afra Rashid Al Basti, rapporteur of the committee, 25 of the articles were scrutinised in the meeting. These tackled administrative sanctions and penalties for violating the provisions of the project, as well as the registration of all spacecraft and its accompanying legislation. Follow-up meetings will be held to prepare a draft that will be submitted to the FNC for the body’s review and subsequent approval.

The committee reviewed several reports and took legislators’ opinions into consideration while preparing the draft.

The committee also met with delegations from the United Arab Emirates University as well as the University of Sharjah, which informed them of the different types of spacecraft, their impact, their composition, as well as the applications of research currently being conducted in space science.

According to the explanatory note, the draft law is composed of nine chapters. Provisions covered the regulation of the Emirates Space Agency; space debris mitigation and extraction; spacecraft registration and permits; copyright laws; penal code as applies to collisions in space; among others.