Otherworldly Ambitions?
Engage Lawyers that share your passion for the final frontier
We’re equipped to handle all the legals of space enterprise. Whether you need to get your rocket off the ground, or just get your back office in order. We’re here to help with the most efficient legal technology around. We share your ambitions for Australian space industry and we want to help you by taking care of the boring things you’d rather not be doing.
Legal Services for Commercial Space Industry
Our Commitment to Space Legals
We have an ambition to be Australia’s premier law practice for space industry. This brings together our practitioners’ years of experience working for industries like software, cyber security and technology services and applies it to ventures exploring the final frontier. Benefit from lawyers with years of experience working the divide between technology and the law as they apply their knowledge to Australia’s emerging space regulation.
Launch Licenses, and Beyond
We’re equipped to handle the full range of commercial law needs of Australian Space Enterprise. A Launch Facility Licence is the major project of a space enterprise, but the majority of the legal needs of space enterprise are much smaller and more frequent. Having a robust and tech-driven commercial practice helps us enable space enterprises to handle the day to day so they can focus on reaching for the stars.
Space Regulation 101
Here is an overview of Australia’s regulatory framework for space launches and returns, administered by the Australian Space Agency.
We can help your space enterprise present as a sophisticated and compliance-aware operation in front of the Australian Space Agency or other regulatory bodies.
Master Australia’s Space Regulatory Framework
It was widely publicised in 2018 when the Commonwealth Government reworked Australia’s Space Activities Act 1998 to become the new Space (Launches and Returns) Act 2018 (SLRA) and created the Australian Space Agency (ASA). This consolidation of Australia’s space regulation is the backdrop to Australia’s modern integration into international commercial space enterprise. It also codifies Australia’s international obligations under many of the five major international space treaties to which it is a signatory.
What it means for your enterprise
The bottom line for any aspiring space entrepreneur is that the ASA is the regulator for the SLRA, which is an instrument of law that principally imposes penalties for any activities in space which are not appropriately licensed/authorised under the SLRA. No licence, no launch.
The objective of the SLRA is to strike the right balance between safe space operations and the encouragement of innovative space technologies in Australia. Therefore the ASA, in theory, exists to authorise any space enterprise wherever that enterprise can establish to its satisfaction that proper safety and environmental risk management is present. There are a few other criteria to meet, but this is the essence of the regulatory framework.
CASA Authorisation still essential
It’s also critical to be aware that most launch facilities also need authorisation from the Civil Aviation Safety Authority (CASA) to enter and use the airspace around their launch facility, in addition to wherever any return from orbit or high altitude may occur.
How we can help
Our approach is run a launch licensing project like any other complex technology roll-out or legal case; using our modernised and tech-driven project management approach to bring together the various experts and parties required to weigh in on the application. We excel at the high-level project management and use our experience dealing with government agencies on complex technology projects to ensure your organisation is producing the level of documentation required by the Commonwealth to approve your application.
We would also typically adopt the role of liaison with the ASA and its representatives. It’s considered best practice to have senior legal practitioners with domain expertise as core representatives of your operation in dealings with the ASA. Most of the personnel working for the ASA will have a high level of familiarity with the legislative requirements of the licence, and will expect that your organisation has people with the same level of understanding to ensure smooth management of the application process.
Launch Licence Process
Once you’ve identified the need for a launch licence, we can help you through the process of applying and meeting the various regulatory hurdles.
We can engage on your behalf with the Australian Space Agency to make your case for a Launch Facility Licence, a Launch Permit or a High Power Rocket Permit.
The road to launch
ASA published guidance estimates that a Launch Facility Licence assessment will take approximately 6 months. In reality that timeframe could be optimistic, and the actual time to achieve the licence will depend on your organisation’s level of preparedness to meet the main criteria, plus the time allowed for ASA to make any inquiries pertaining to the specific nature of your operation.
What is involved in planning
A significant amount of planning will need to go into creating transparency around your operation. This means demonstrating documented emergency planning, financial and business planning, engineering and launch facility specifications, technology security as well as considerations specific to your operation. In short, it’s a significant venture that requires a lot of co-ordination with different levels of expertise.
What documentation is required
It’s important to ensure your documentation strikes the right balance between a technical and government/administrative audience. The level of detail in the documentation is similar to the work we do for technology companies selling software to government. Some examples of documentation that might be required by the ASA before a launch facility licence is granted include:
- Launch facility site access details, site plans and construction details/schedules;
- Facility Management Plans (e.g. details of operational procedures and key personnel);
- Flight paths and flight scheduling;
- Financial standing documentation (e.g. financial statements, business planning documents, capital expenditures and projected cashflow documents);
- Engineering plans and specifications for vehicles or constructions to be undertaken on the site;
- Emergency, accident and fire plans;
- Environmental impact plans; and
- Technology and cyber security plans.
This is a non-exhaustive list just to give you an idea of the level of detail and documentation that might need to be produced for a launch facility licence to be granted. Preparing this with legal counsel involvement means you can ensure that your submissions are sufficiently detailed, and you protect any proprietary information from public disclosures by working through the implications of Freedom of Information legislation on the submission.
Legal Compliance
Navigating the laws governing space enterprise doesn’t have to be harder than orbital mechanics; we’ve got you covered.
We can help your space enterprise reduce transactional friction, as well as handle the emerging regulatory complexity that faces all tech-driven organisations.
Compliance for all space ventures
Successful legal compliance requires planning and having availability of great advice and practical assistance as your commercial objectives evolve. In commercial space operations this can’t be done early enough, even if you are completely outsourcing the launch component of your operations.
Areas to consider
To name a few examples, space enterprise will need to consider employment laws, environmental laws, data privacy and cyber security, radio-communications regulations and land usage laws and planning.
Normally, the type of venture capital firms that are funding space operations are aware of these major areas and insist of the involvement of legal counsel as a part of structuring their funding. Indeed, capital funding is a key area of practice for Artificer and we love working with a wide variety of startups, particularly those venturing beyond the atmosphere. For information on how we help with funding, have a read of our page on Capital, Funding and Grants.
Once you’ve got funding
Once the venture moves past its initial investment, proactively working towards compliance tends to take a back seat to achieving commercial viability of the venture. Executives can have the best intentions, but its no surprise that the focus shifts to ensuring the operation is a commercial success; this is totally natural. In this context, it makes sense to have access to ad-hoc assistance directly to front-line staff with a product like Artificer OnDemand, instead of bringing lawyers in at random intervals to do compliance audits at a higher level.
Using the ad-hoc assistance provided by the OnDemand, executives can have confidence of a predictable pricing model while front-line staff are able to access expert legal counsel as-needed. You can, of course, still run traditional compliance audits as part of a management structure; but we always advocate the agile and newer approach provided by using a platform like OnDemand.
For rocketry
For rocket-based ventures, you are likely to have to grapple with all the compliance challenges of an ordinary business dealing in logistics and services, plus:
- Launch, recovery and high-power rocket permits;
- Local fire prevention measures;
- Explosives licensing;
- Spectrum/radio-frequency licensing;
- Maritime laws; and
- Environmental laws.
Generally a well written set of operation plans (such as those required for the initial launch facility licence) will outline when it is important to bring legal counsel onboard to advise on the practical steps to ensure compliance with these laws. We think the best way to achieve this is to have a platform like Artificer OnDemand available to department heads and other front-line staff. This lets them directly interface with legal counsel on an as-needed basis, all while managing costs within a controllable budget.
Transacting like a modern business
Achieving a state of legal compliance is important, but actually far from the most important work that commercial lawyers can do to assist your enterprise. Rather, we believe our best work is done enabling you to present your operation as highly compliant, modern and organised through our signature blend of technology and legal services.
This begins with presenting your operation as having a robust compliance culture to your potential customers, with digital contracting that makes it effortless to transact with you. It continues with proactive sales support to your sales and public relations teams. Let us show you how easy you can make the process of pre-sales and contract negotiations for all involved.
Ready for launch?
We’re standing by
Leave us a short message about your space enterprise and we’ll come right back and let you know what we view as the next steps.
Free and fast pricing information
Once we’ve agreed to help, we deliver an online Statement of Work which contains a quick summary about what work we’re proposing and our estimates. Don’t sign anything until you see our estimate, we make it so easy to compare.
Free digital consultation
We offer a free digital consultation via videoconference to discuss our proposed way forward and to gather information. We can schedule this using your own conferencing system if you like, just drop a link in the contact form.
Thank you!
Your message has been received. We’ll be in touch soon.