Space Law and Legal Actions for Damage caused by Space Objects on the Surface of the Earth or in Air Space: A Case Study of the fall of Tiangong-1

Abstract

Space objects that fell on the surface of the Earth, or in air space, were found that most of them would be the space debris, which were the components of the satellites and the rockets but not frequently to be the components of the space station. The implementation of space law for damage caused by space objects can be divided into three cases by considering that the launching state and the state damaged by the space object are the membership of the United Nations Space Agreements such as; The Outer Space Treaty 1967 and Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects 1972 or not. It is including the issue of international liability of the People’s Republic of China in case of damage from its space objects, if Tiangong-1 Space Station fell on the territory of Thailand and cause damage. As a result of the fall of the Tiangong-1, Thailand should consider to be a membership of the Convention on International Liability for Damage Caused by Space Objects 1972 in order to protect the interests of Thailand and Thai people from the damage caused by a space object because space activities are relatively high risk that may cause more harm to humanity.