Covered? Insurance Viability in the New Space Age

• Author: Josh Raizner
• Position: Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. expected 2023; Colorado College, B.S. 2020
• Pages: 1057-1070

Covered? Insurance Viability in the New Space Age

JOSH RAIZNER*

INTRODUCTION

In 1965, Lloyd’s of London created the first satellite insurance policy.

1

LLOYD’S, Pioneers of Travel, https://www.lloyds.com/about-lloyds/history/innovation-and-unusual-

risks/pioneers-of-travel [https://perma.cc/6F2N-4BZM] (last visited Feb. 22, 2022).

By

2040, estimates show the commercial space industry will be a trillion-dollar busi-

ness.

2

MORGAN STANLEY, https://www.morganstanley.com/ideas/investing-in-space [https://perma.cc/7LRW-

UCJL] (last visited Nov. 22, 2021).

Regulatory support, commercial innovators, a small pool of insurers—each

play a crucial role in maintaining and encouraging growth in the commercial

space industry. An emerging concern within each sector is the presence and pro-

liferation of orbital debris.

3

The Klesser Syndrome describes a future scenario of

collisional cascading, and although debris mitigation is imperative, orbital debris

will almost certainly increase.

4

See generally Donald J. Kessler & Burton G. Cour-Palas, Collision frequency of artificial satellites: The

creation of a debris belt, 83 J. GEOPHYSICAL RES.: SPACE PHYSICS 2637 (1978) (detailing the widely cited

Kessler Syndrome, which describes a future scenario of collisional cascading). As recent as November 2021,

Russia conducted an anti-satellite weapons test that almost immediately resulted 1,500 trackable pieces of de-

bris. Elizabeth Howell, Space Debris from Russian Anti-Satellite Missile Test Spotted in Telescope Images and

Video, SPACE.COM (Nov. 17, 2021), https://www.space.com/russia-anti-satellite-test-space-debris-images

[https://perma.cc/7VAV-UPN3]. Currently, the Department of Defense tracks approximately 27,000 total

orbital debris, most of which are ten centimeters or larger; objects smaller than ten centimeters pose collision

risks all the same but are too small to track. NASA, SPACE DEBRIS AND HUMAN SPACECRAFT, https://www.nasa.

gov/mission_pages/station/news/orbital_debris.html [https://perma.cc/NU24-DWXC] (last visited Nov. 22,

2021).

Mitigating the increase in orbital debris, and

therefore encouraging the continued use of space, is a “vital national interest.”

5

In part, continued use of space is important because of the strategic and inte-

grated role of satellites: from predicting crop yields to aiding search and rescue

missions to bringing broadband communications to remote communities, satellite

uses are widespread and deeply integrated in the economy.

6

Most satellites are

owned by commercial operators.

7

See Union of Concern Scientists, UCS Satellite Database (Jan. 1, 2022), https://www.ucsusa.org/

resources/satellite-database [https://perma.cc/P42S-BAK9]; Dewsoft, Every Satellite Orbiting Earth and Who Owns

Them (Jan. 18, 2022), https://dewesoft.com/daq/every-satellite-orbiting-earth-and-who-owns-them [https://perma.

cc/E6XF-6WZ2].

As the proliferation of orbital debris forces

* Georgetown University Law Center, J.D. expected 2023; Colorado College, B.S. 2020. © 2022, Joshua D.

Raizner.

1.

2.

3. Paul B. Larsen, Solving the Space Debris Crisis, 83 J. Air L. & Com. 475, 476-77 (2018).

4.

5. NAT. SPACE COUNCIL, EXEC. [OFF.] OF THE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES SPACE PRIORITIES FRAMEWORK,

DECEMBER 2021.

6. Id.

7.

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