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Schweickart, Rusty --- "Foreword" [2015] ELECD 244; in von der Dunk, Frans (ed), "Handbook of Space Law" (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2015) xx

Book Title: Handbook of Space Law

Editor(s): von der Dunk, Frans

Publisher: Edward Elgar Publishing

ISBN (hard cover): 9781781000359

Section Title: Foreword

Author(s): Schweickart, Rusty

Number of pages: 4

Extract:

Foreword


As an astronaut I never expected to be interested in, let alone involved in,
space law ­ which is of course what this book is all about. But that was
back when I was the payload and not the purveyor. I got my big toe wet
back in the 1970s when my responsibility shifted to remote sensing and I
began brushing up against the permissible/impermissible boundaries of
image resolution, access and ownership. Recently my work in protecting
earth from asteroid impacts led me into the United Nations Committee on
the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) and a full body dunking
into the deep waters of international space law. The shifting of impact
zones across the earth's surface in the process of removing them from the
planet, the inherent liabilities in the event of a malfunction during
deflection, the potential use of weapons of mass destruction technologies
to avoid a global catastrophe, and the contending geopolitical self-
interests of the nations involved sent me screaming for a legal life
preserver!
And there, via intermediary friends, was Frans von der Dunk, calmly,
with great Dutch dignity, standing on the legal shoreline prepared to hurl
me a bright orange life preserver. We became close friends and Frans,
with his thoughtful insights and great depth in space law became an
essential and increasingly productive member of our planetary defence
team.
Our `team' is a bit too glib a descriptor perhaps. Back in 2001 a
number of scientists, engineers and astronauts gathered ...