Space has become the final frontier for a new breed of adventure tourist. Unlike earth-bound exploits, however, those who boldly go into orbit around the planet face a variety of intriguing and complex legal issues before they get there.
To date there have been three individuals who have flown to the International Space Station (ISS) on a commercial basis – Dennis Tito in 2001, Mark Shuttleworth in 2002 and Greg Olsen in October this year. Each of them flew to the ISS through the Russian space programme. Hogan & Hartson was fortunate to represent all three in their negotiations to fly into space and, in doing so, dealt with some of the major legal issues in the emerging field of space tourism.
