The interest of private entities in the space field is increasing day by day. As the process of commercialization of space activities continues rapidly, the space treaties drafted during the Cold War era, do not legislate effectively for private activities (Hobe, 2020). Article VI of the Outer Space Treaty subjected the realization of private activities to the authorization and continuous supervision of States. The same article emphasized that States bear international responsibility for their national activities including activities carried out by private entities. Also, the liability regime of International Space Law has no limit and is considered to be victim-oriented, compared to other liability regimes.

It is argued in academia that the responsibility and liability regimes established by space treaties, hinders the development of private activities, and becomes outdated with the rise of private entities. The issue sought to be answered within the scope of this study, is whether or not these regimes are up-to-date and whether or not they are compatible with today’s realities. In this context, we will first underline that private entities do not bear responsibility at the international level (2). Following which, we will deal with how the responsibility undertaken by States, is reflected to private entities in their national space legislations (3).

In this study, the issue of responsibility and liability only arising from space operations will be discussed. The definition of a space operation is the launch of a space object into outer space, its control in outer space or its return to Earth. Also, the concept of a private entity should be understood as the person who carries out the operation, namely the private operator. In short, an operator is a person who conducts a space operation independently and under his own responsibility. The operator does not need to have ownership of the space object, it is sufficient to exercise effective control over the object.