Archive for the ‘Space Book Reviews’ Category
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October 28th, 2025
International space law from decades ago was written for a world that no longer exists, explains space lawyer Michelle Slawecki Hanlon.
“The treaties that guide us, visionary as they are, were crafted when only two nations had the power to reach orbit. They focused on peace and principles, not procedures or property rights,” Hanlon explains in a recent Facebook posting.
Cold War time capsule
Hanlon notes that today there are commercial launch providers, multinational resource ventures, private stations, lunar habitats and artificial intelligence systems operating with increasing autonomy. “Yet the legal framework that governs them still reads like a Cold War time capsule,” she responded.
Lawyers are needed, but not as regulators or obstacles.
Signing of Outer Space Treaty.
Image credit: United Nations
“Lawyers are the navigators of this new era. We shouldn’t tell industry what it can’t do; we should help it understand how to do what it wants to do — responsibly, sustainably and lawfully,” Hanlon suggests.
Stalling at the edge of legality
For one, “good space lawyering” isn’t about drawing borders, Hanlon adds. “It’s about drawing pathways and aligning innovation with international obligations so that progress doesn’t stall at the edge of legality.”
Space cowboys? International lawyers are trying to agree on what legislation will be needed to control the exploration of mineral resources in space to avoid a new ‘Wild West’.
Credit: James Vaughan
Space doesn’t need more rules; it needs people who know how to use them, Hanlon says, as the next leap in human civilization “won’t be powered by rockets alone. It will be powered by law that keeps pace with technology and imagination alike.”
For more on the advancement of space law, go to the Space Law Quick Reference Booklet – Digital Edition at:
https://secure.touchnet.net/C21670_ustores/web/product_detail.jsp?PRODUCTID=1582
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The Launch of Rocket Lab by Peter Griffin, with introduction by Sir Peter Beck, Published by Blackwell & Ruth and distributed by Abrams Books; 312 pages; Hardcover, $60.00.
This stunning, large format book, tells the engaging story of Rocket Lab and how Peter Beck founded this powerhouse of an enterprise. As a self-taught rocket engineer without a college degree, Beck’s garage-based start-up in New Zealand has led to a 2,500 people strong, $22-plus billion publicly traded company now headquartered in Long Beach, California.
This compelling and well-written tale is authored by Peter Griffin, a New Zealand-based science and technology journalist who has been covering emerging technology, start-ups, and the tech sector for decades.
Illustrated by 175 color and black & white images, what’s portrayed in the volume is a first in-depth view of Rocket Lab’s past and where Beck and colleagues foresee as its future. Thanks to firsthand accounts from the engineers and team, The Launch of Rocket Lab delivers an enthralling behind-the-scenes look at this highly successful space company.
Imagineer, Peter Beck
“Somewhere between unlikely and impossible is where magic happens,” explains Beck. “This book captures the essence of Rocket Lab’s spirit. It’s not just a chronicle of our achievements but a testament to what can be accomplished when you dare to try and refuse to give up,” he explains in the volume’s introduction.
“Everyone thinks you are crazy until you do it; then you are just called a visionary,” Beck observes.
The book is divided into three parts: “Looking Upwards”; “The Age of Electron”; and “The Next Frontiers.” The contents are remarkably fresh, including Rocket Lab’s work on the CAPSTONE lunar mission, the soon-to-launch ESCAPADE Mars probes, the group’s highly anticipated Venus Life Finder mission, and nifty details about building the up-and-coming Neutron booster.
Venus Life Finder.
Image credit: Rocket Lab
Captured as well is the company’s funding challenges, near-misses, and failed missions – a non-hiccup-free journey to developing Rocket Lab’s Electron launcher.
Hat’s off to those laying out The Launch of Rocket Lab that tastefully makes use of breathtaking imagery that gives the book a feeling of time, space, and the thirst to thrust into space and set your sights on the unknown.
“Outsized ambition is really the story of Rocket Lab,” writes Griffin, the book’s author. “Rocket Lab is laying the groundwork for a future where it looks likely to play a pivotal role in the shape of the commercial space sector,” he adds.
Indeed, this story of innovation and stick-to-it passion should also become a lessons-learned short-course for fledgling space start-ups.
For more information on this book, go to:
https://www.blackwellandruth.com/books
Note: Special thanks to Kate Greenberg of Arply for the book and press materials.
Image credit: Air University Press
The transformation of Earth’s Moon to an industrial site is fully explored in a new publication.
The Commercial Lunar Economy Field Guide: a vision for industry on the Moon in the next decade is fully explored in the document, issued by Air University Press, stationed at Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama.
Image credit: Honeybee Robotics
“At the heart of the Moon’s transformation from a distant dream to a vibrant marketplace is the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s groundbreaking LunA-10 initiative, a ten-year blueprint aimed at forging scalable lunar infrastructure and unlocking the economic potential of our closest celestial neighbor,” explains this invaluable resource.
“This book serves as your guide to foundational technology concepts that will help move the nation into future off-Earth economic development.”
Image credit: Air University Press
Edited by Michael Nayak, a DARPA program manager, The Commercial Lunar Economy Field Guide offers an unprecedented technical, economic, and commercial roadmap for a literal “Moon makeover.”
The book’s 23 chapters fleshes out the foundational technology concepts sparked by early individual scientific efforts to create self-sufficient, monetizable services for future lunar buyers and sellers; and sustain off-Earth economic vibrancy.
For free access to this invaluable document, go to:
Image credit: Air University Press
Book Review: Space to Grow – Unlocking the Final Economic Frontier by Matthew Weinzierl and Brendan Rosseau, Published by Harvard Business Publishing; Pages: 320 pages; Hardcover $32.00.
“We believe that the space renaissance is just getting started,” explain Weinzierl and Rosseau. “Day by day, in ways big and small, the space revolution marches forward.”
As a foundation, this three-part book – “Establish the Market”; “Refine the Market”; and “Temper the Market” – serves up a dozen chapters that are based on the book’s premise: “The space economy is just that–an economy–governed by the same laws of supply and demand that apply here on Earth.”
This valuable read uses case studies spotlighting the real-world complexity, uncertainty, and excitement of the evolving space sector. Those case studies include decision-making at NASA, Blue Origin, SpaceX, Astroscale, and a variety of space-engaged firms and organizations.
As the authors explain, the book is intended to help you appreciate “not only what is changing in the business and economics of space activities but also why it’s changing and why it matters.”
The book delivers on that intent in many ways, encouraging you to develop your own informed, sophisticated perspective on space and how its development can transform your career, your organization, and the collective future of all of us.
But the volume does more than focus in on the “cashing in” on space endeavors. There are segments, such as the tragedy of the orbital commons, planetary resources and property rights in space, as well as national security and what’s termed as “the military-celestial complex.”
As a unique guidebook, this book is a readable, factual, and behind-the-scenes look at space leaders and the tools of economics at work – to showcase the transformation and future possibilities of the business and economics of space.
For more information on this book, go to:
https://store.hbr.org/product/space-to-grow-unlocking-the-final-economic-frontier/10721
Note: By going to that site, you can also call up a “click to preview” – a helpful way to dive into and appreciate the full volume.
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
This document provides a deep dive and excellent reference regarding the U.S. federal civil space budget between Fiscal Year 2023 and proposed spending in Fiscal Year 2025.
The term civil space is generally understood among the public and policymakers to refer to non-national security agencies with direct missions to space.
Increased national importance
As pointed out in this document, the growing number of civil space departments and agencies “is one way of measuring space’s increased national importance.”
Indeed, the ubiquitous use of space is also a result of capabilities becoming more accessible, “allowing department agendas to incorporate space as a tool rather than endeavor a space-centric, long-term, strategic mission,” the document adds.
“As a result, the emerging civil space enterprise resembles a complex food chain, with embedded interdependencies between agencies.”
Image credit: The Aerospace Corporation
Foundational dataset
A Comprehensive Guide to the U.S. Federal Civil Space Budget provides a foundational dataset for civil space budget analyses, developed by Lindsay DeMarchi, a policy analyst in the Center for Space Policy and Strategy at The Aerospace Corporation.
Projects that support, enable, or leverage space activities for civil purposes are found among more than 100 individual line items spread across 17 federal departments and agencies and funded by 4 different appropriations bills.
Priority areas
The second half of the report introduces a novel representation of the civil space budget by organizing the data into national priority areas:
♦ American Leadership and Manufacturing
♦ Workforce Development
♦ Fundamental Science
♦ Efficiency, Improvements, and Growth
♦ Homeland Security
♦ Infrastructure, Energy, and Resiliency
♦ Remote Sensing Applications
Credit: White House
The intent of this referential dataset is to begin a broader discussion of the direct and indirect relationships civil space budget line items have to broader national priorities.
To review the document — A Comprehensive Guide to the U.S. Federal Civil Space Budget – go to:
https://csps.aerospace.org/sites/default/files/2025-06/DeMarchi_FedSpaceBudget_20250609_4.pdf
NASA has issued a new volume, Governing the Moon – A History, part of a series of monographs in aerospace history and a report for NASA’s Office of Technology, Policy, and Strategy, closed down in March 2025.
This invaluable read is authored by Stephen Buono, a Collegiate Assistant Professor in the Social Sciences at the University of Chicago.
The monograph is built around five chapters: The Moon’s Lawyer, Aldo Armando Cocca and the Germ of a Treaty; “A Rather Clumsy Attempt” – Moscow’s Moon Treaty; New York, Geneva, New York – The United Nations Negotiations; The Doldrums – Limping Toward the Finish Line, and “Armageddon for the Free Enterprise System” – The Moon Treaty in the American Scene.
Buono illuminates the treaty’s deep origins, the contributions of international space lawyers, the details of the negotiating process, the role played by the United States in shaping the final text, and the contributions of the treaty’s single most important author, Aldo Armando Cocca.
Nuanced and complicated
Known as the Moon Treaty, the Agreement Governing the Activities of States on the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies was adopted in 1979 by the United Nations General Assembly.
Nine candidate landing regions for NASA’s Artemis III mission The background image of the lunar South Pole terrain within the nine regions is a mosaic of LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) WAC (Wide Angle Camera) images.
Image credit: NASA
However, negotiated over a decade, the treaty was not ultimately ratified.
Buono explains that this report, “if it is as useful to NASA as I intended, has provided a history of the Moon Treaty more nuanced and complicated than its politization in the 1980s may have at first suggested.”
Furthermore, Buono states that he has sought to illuminate the deep origins of the treaty; the contributions of international space lawyers to its intellectual maturation; the details of the negotiating process; as well as the role played by the United States in shaping the final text.
“As NASA prepares to launch humans to the Moon once more,” Buono continues, “it is my humble wish that the narrative presented here proves meaningful to the administration’s continued work on space governance.”
This publication is available as a free download at:
Artistic depiction of NASA astronauts at the lunar south pole carrying out early work to establish an Artemis Base Camp.
Image credit: NASA
Book Review: Space Piracy – Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit by Marc Feldman and Hugh Taylor, Published by John Wiley & Sons; 256 pages; E-Book Starting at $18.00; Hardcover Starting at $30.00.
This book is quite the lean into it, forward-thinking volume that takes on topics few researchers have tackled. It’s an invaluable look at space as a commercial resource, but primarily the prospect for crime, corruption, piracy, and war.
The authors are Marc Feldman, a Managing Partner at Eonia Capital, an aerospace and defense-based venture capital fund, and Hugh Taylor, Executive Editor of The Journal of Cyber Policy and a cybersecurity and enterprise technologist.
Talk about “high crimes” and misdemeanors!
Criminality in space is explored in this book, from space hacking to existing cybersecurity standards and practices in space, laws and treaties relevant to space crime, as well as cartels and kidnappers.
As Colonel Eric Felt of the US Space Force writes in the book’s foreword: “In my view, we can deter and defeat space pirates, but not by doing nothing. The book thoughtfully outlines specific actions that can and should be taken today, specific actions for the intelligence community, Space Force, private sector, and other stakeholders.”
Feldman and Taylor provide a viable and valuable read, indeed, a 101 course on the idea of space piracy. As they write, “we think the phenomenon will occur,” and offer suggestions for mitigating the risk. “We refer to our content as ‘speculative nonfiction,’” they add.
Space Piracy – Preparing for a Criminal Crisis in Orbit is an eye-opening volume. It does what the authors were seeking to do, to “catalyze the conversations that need to take place.”
Those that have a vested interest in the multi-billion dollar commercial space of today and what’s ahead, space exploration progress that is leading to space colonization, will find this book a tour guide of trouble-brewing possibilities.
For more information about this book, go to:
https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Space+Piracy%3A+Preparing+for+a+Criminal+Crisis+in+Orbit-p-9781394240210
Also, go to the Center for the Study of Space Crime, Piracy, and Governance at:
Take a look at this webinar: Space – The Next Frontier for Money Laundering at:
Also, check out the Space Beach Law Lab that is returning to the Queen Mary on March 25 to 27 for their second annual conference on space law.
Go to: https://www.spacelawlab.com/
NASA’s Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute (S3VI) has released the 2024 State-of-the-Art Small Spacecraft Technology report.
This informative and detailed 2024 edition reflects updates in several areas, including formation flying and rendezvous and proximity operations, additive manufacturing, free space optical communications and hosted orbital services.
Invaluable insights
The document provides invaluable insights in numerous areas, including power, in-space propulsion, guidance, navigation, and control, as well as thermal control, smallsat avionics and deorbit systems.
The S3VI is located at the NASA Ames Research Center in California’s Silicon Valley. The S3VI is sponsored by NASA’s Space Technology Mission Directorate (STMD).
Image credit: S3VI
Improved capabilities
“Technology maturation and miniaturization continues to expand small spacecraft capabilities with the rise in complex SmallSat mission designs. These improved capabilities have broadened the common SmallSat platform resulting in larger CubeSats and smaller SmallSats,” the report notes.
The NASA Small Spacecraft Technology State-of-the-art report is updated annually to capture new information on publicly available small spacecraft systems from NASA and other sources.
Image credit: S3VI
Mass categories
SmallSats are generally grouped according to their mass, and this report adopts the following five small spacecraft mass categories:
- minisatellites are spacecraft with a total mass of 100 – 180 kg;
- microsatellites have a total spacecraft mass of 10-100 kg;
- nanosatellites have a total mass of 1 – 10 kg;
- picosatellites have a mass of 1 – 0.01 kg; and
- femtosatellites have a total spacecraft mass 0.01 – 0.09 kg.
Bridging technology gaps
“While updates in all chapters reflect this growth in the small spacecraft market,” the report points out, “a focused effort was made to update areas with recent technology developments that may ultimately bridge existing technology gaps.”
To access a copy of this report, go to:
https://www.nasa.gov/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/soa-2024.pdf?emrc=0945a0
Also, be sure to check out the resource-rich Small Spacecraft Systems Virtual Institute website at:
Uncertainty exists associated with operating in cislunar space, as well as on and around the Moon – so much so that a “security dilemma” between countries can evolve.
There is need to provide an opportunity for transparency, coordination, cooperation, and collaboration a new report suggests. It calls for inclusive engagement and decision-making concerning cislunar space, including the development of improved rules and best practices.
The Outer Space Institute has published a report on cislunar security: New Moon: A Cislunar Security Workshop Report.
The Outer Space Institute (OSI) is based at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver and is a network of world-leading space experts.
Earth’s Moon and cis-lunar space are new destinations for numbers of nations. To what extent is that presence demand or promote a military presence?
Image credit: Inside Outer Space
Military buildup
Defined in the report is that a security dilemma occurs “when a state, lacking clear information about whether a potential adversary is engaged in a military buildup, faces a choice between building up its own military, or doing nothing and risk being overwhelmed.”
Indeed, voices within U.S. national security circles have voiced support that the U.S. Space Force should have a cislunar military presence, strengthening the ability to guard commercial interests as a “cislunar economy” evolves.
One major issue identified in the report is lunar surface traffic management. It involves ensuring that one actor does not impede another actor – or imperil its personnel, equipment or installations – by approaching too closely or causing dust lofting or radio interference of some kind. “But what is a reasonable distance,” the report adds, “and who gets to decide?”
Carving up near-moon locales: How strategic could this be for military interests? (Image credit: Aerospace Corporation)
China’s lunar program
Given China’s growing progress in Moon exploration, via robots and eventual human treks to emplace an International Lunar Research Station (ILRS), there has been little effort by Western experts to analyze documents on cislunar space from China or, indeed, to engage with Chinese experts.
“Unfortunately, this only increases the risk of one or more security dilemmas,” the report observes.
Image courtesy U.S. Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) in its “2022 Challenges to Security in Space” report.
To access the full report — New Moon: A Cislunar Security Workshop Report — and its recommendations and conclusions, go to:
A signal is detected from other star folks. But what happens now?
The International Academy of Astronautics has outlined protocols for what to do if we discover extraterrestrials. The major points of the protocol fall into three areas:
- The detection of alien life should be carefully verified by repeated observations.
- The discovery should be publicized.
- No response should be sent without international consultation.
The late Frank Drake with cosmic equation to gauge the presence of intelligent life in the cosmos. The Drake Equation identifies specific factors believed to play a role in the development of civilizations in our galaxy.
Image credit: SETI Institute
Next-gen SETI
That factoid is one among many in Next-Gen SETI: Pioneering the Search for ET.
If you’re curious about the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, download a free eBook produced by the SETI Institute.
Learn about:
- The Allen Telescope Array and China’s FAST facility used to detect potential extraterrestrial signals.
- Different approaches like radio and optical methods that expand our search.
- Key scientific concepts and theories, including the Drake Equation and the Fermi Paradox.
- Societal implications and protocols for responding to extraterrestrial discoveries.
Download your free eBook at:
https://www.seti.org/sites/default/files/2025-01/SETI%20ebook%20%20final.7.9.24.pdf
