Legal Challenges and Obstacles in New-Space: "We Aim for the Stars, but Sometimes We End up in Court"

While traditional commercial companies have been operating for decades and have typically amassed substantial and capable in-house legal teams as well as retained outside counsel, often the legal implications and potential imbroglios that can arise for a space startup can come as a shocking surprise to the New-Space entrepreneur. Commonly, the legal staffs of such start-ups, if they exist at all, are small, and focused on regulatory or financing issues. However, the New-Space company faces many of the same legal issues as their established brethren and many challenges which are unique to, or exacerbated by the nature of such space start-ups. In this paper, a brief overview of some of the possible issues that can face the New-Space venture is presented.