What UK Space Industry Act 2018 - CAA Spaceflight Licensing, Operator Liability and Spaceport Authorisation requires
The UK Space Industry Act 2018 (c.5) and the Space Industry Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/792) establish the United Kingdom's domestic licensing framework for spaceflight activities, designating the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) as the primary spaceflight regulator and conferring on the Secretary of State powers to authorise spaceports and grant operator licences; the Act creates three principal licence types: a launch operator licence (for entities launching spacecraft), a range control service licence (for entities providing range safety services), and a spaceport operator licence (for entities operating launch facilities from UK territory); applicants must demonstrate: financial capacity to meet the minimum insurance threshold (currently GBP 60 million per launch event or higher as CAA determines by risk assessment), a safety case accepted by the CAA Spaceflight Team, a range safety plan, and compliance with the UK's obligations under the Outer Space Treaty 1967, the Liability Convention 1972, and the Registration Convention 1975; the Act creates a strict liability regime for the UK government vis-a-vis foreign states for damage caused by licensed UK launch activities, with the operator required to indemnify the government up to the licensed insurance amount; the Spaceflight Activities (Investigation of Spaceflight Accidents) Regulations 2021 require mandatory reporting and investigation of spaceflight accidents; the CAA published the CAP 2616 Spaceflight Licensing Guidance in 2023 as the principal operational guide for applicants.
Pillar: Space & Satellite Law · Authority: Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) Spaceflight Team; UK Department for Transport; UK Space Agency (UKSA) · Version: 1.0.0 · Last updated:
Primary source: https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/5/contents
SHA-256 integrity: 585e0793243ae172ecb585e7bf342e6b4eed3d3aaa1a206f23bf57999322738b
Primary Citations — 6 traced to source
- {"title":"Space Industry Act 2018 Chapter 5 - UK Parliament / legislation.gov.uk","url":"https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2018/5/contents","section":"Sections 3-8 (licence types: launch operator, range control, spaceport), Sections 11-13 (human spaceflight informed consent), Sections 14-20 (spaceport designation and authorisation), Sections 25-32 (CAA powers to vary, suspend, revoke), Sections 33-39 (insurance obligations), Section 68 (criminal offences for unlicensed activities), Section 76 (spacecraft registration)"}
- {"title":"Space Industry Regulations 2021 (SI 2021/792) - legislation.gov.uk","url":"https://www.legislation.gov.uk/uksi/2021/792/contents","section":"Part 2 (licence categories, application procedure), Part 3 (safety case requirements, Quantitative Risk Assessment, safety management system), Part 5 (compliance monitoring, annual reports, pre-launch readiness), Part 6 (insurance requirements, minimum thresholds), Schedule 5 (additional requirements for human spaceflight operations)"}
+ 4 more citations (full bibliography, deterministic workflow, actionable schema and crosswalks) included in the vault unlock — $0.01 via Skyfire / L402 / Direct Base USDC.
Access
- Discovery (free): /api/v1/nodes/uk-space-industry-act-2018-caa.json — 6-field metadata
- Vault (full node): /api/v1/vault/nodes/uk-space-industry-act-2018-caa.json — full 13-key payload, $0.01 USDC (L402/Skyfire/Direct Base)
- Canonical URL: https://bidda.com/intelligence/uk-space-industry-act-2018-caa
- Back to registry: Browse all 10,090 compliance nodes