Vinicius Guedes Gonçalves de Oliveira
PhD Candidate and Researcher,
Cybersecurity and Space Infrastructure
POLICY PERSPECTIVES #15, August 2024
Fuelled by considerable technological advancements, and the idea that space activities can become commercially profitable, space is now perceived under a new sectorial dynamic named NewSpace. This dynamic is marked by the appearance of multiple space players, new space services and products, and a vibrant commercial space sector. It adds complexity to an already congested, contested, and competitive space environment, and highlights the rising importance of regulating space activities.
Concerningly, the last international space treaty developed under the United Nations auspices was established in 1979. The space sector, however, did not wait for regulation and frenetically evolved – nowadays underpinning most of the global economy and state’s critical infrastructure. Consequently, an important transversal issue in the NewSpace era is ensuring the security, safety, sustainability, and stability of space activities.
Recognising this challenge, countries have developed their own domestic space legislation. The governments of the United States (2015), Luxembourg (2017), and the United Arab Emirates (2019) adopted legislation granting private commercial companies the right to own and acquire space resources. Australia (2018) and New Zealand (2017) enacted legislation regulating launching activities. Similarly, the United Kingdom (UK) passed the Space Industry Act (2018) and the Space Industry Regulations (2021), and Japan (2021) enacted its Space Resources Act. These domestic space laws have become fundamental, not only to satisfy international responsibilities previously agreed upon but also to augment the necessary conditions to adapt their national frameworks to the new demands of the NewSpace.
NewSpace in Brazil
The Brazilian government has identified the strategic importance of space. It recognised that while Brazil has a society that increasingly consumes space goods and services, the lack of investment in the domestic space sector would invariably push Brazil to promote space programs of other nations and, therefore, give up its national potentialities. Aiming to establish itself as an emerging space power, Brazil has recognised the importance of having specific space legislation to regulate national space activities and recently developed Law 14.946/24, originating Brazil’s Space Activities Act on July 31, 2024. To be effective, this Act must consider the specific demands of the Brazilian industry, civil, and military sectors, while also addressing and embodying some of the country’s social and geographical particularities.
In this sense, Brazil is the fifth largest country in the world, with an extensive north-south shape that encompasses the subtropical, tropical, and equatorial climate zones – this generates distinct biomes. The country also has a huge terrestrial border, shared with all South American nations apart from Chile and Ecuador. It also has a vast portion of jurisdictional waters, denominated as the “Blue Amazon” due to its large size and immeasurable natural resources, which equates to more than half of the Brazilian land territory. The giant country also possesses some of the greatest hydrographic wealth in the world, benefitting fishing, tourism and energy sectors. Additionally, massive complex territory, Brazil has socioeconomic challenges due to its unequal and poor society and a high volume of urban violence.
In all aspects, Brazil could benefit from more efficient use of space technologies. Space technology could assist the country in patrolling its borders and coastline, supervising the quality of the water bodies, and monitoring its national environmental heritage. Through this, Brazil could foster the sustainable exploration of its natural resources while addressing national and international responsibilities of conservation. Eventually, this could improve the country’s international position, especially since its recent disregard for sustainability goals has threatened international agreements that could have proved economically advantageous for Brazil.
The enhanced use of space technologies could also assist in growing consolidated sectors in the Brazilian economy. The mining, energy, livestock, and farming sectors contribute to a significant portion of the country’s gross domestic product and could greatly benefit from this new approach. Finally, the use of space technologies could mitigate several areas that negatively influence the economy and the quality of life of the Brazilian population, including the repression of organised criminality and the prevention and fast detection of natural disasters.
The Impact of Brazil’s Space Activities Act
Overall, the Brazilian legislative initiative is a worthy action that puts the giant South American country on the same regulatory level as some of the important space powers in the world while addressing Brazil’s international obligations under UN space treaties. It goes beyond being merely a checklist of the country’s international obligations and adopts a progressive stance by including emerging themes, such as space exploration, space tourism, and the removal of space debris; despite much of this still demands further development for its efficacy.
The Act empowers the Brazilian Space Agency, assigning specific duties to the agency related to creating regulatory frameworks for the coordination of licenses, authorisations, and insurance policies, the rescue of space objects and space debris, and for the development and management of the Brazilian Space Registry of Space Objects. These frameworks are essential for building conditions for the development of a domestic space industry in Brazil and attracting international investments and partnerships. Hence, it is critical for the agency to have the necessary personnel and budgetary means to perform such activities, which has not been the case in recent years. There are still some points that require further development in the Act, but, altogether, the Space Activities Act is a step forward for the Brazilian space scenario and has the potential to elevate the country’s position in the current NewSpace setting.
Vinicius Guedes Gonçalves de Oliveira is a lawyer who graduated from the Federal University of Espírito Santo (UFES) in Brazil.
He is currently a PhD candidate and scholarship holder co-funded by SmartSat CRC and Flinders University developing a doctoral project focused on the cybersecurity of the Australian space infrastructure and its interaction with the current legal and policy domestic framework.
Vinicius is a Global Fellow at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI), where he examines the space sector of emerging space-faring nations in Latin America, with a particular focus on Brazil.
Additionally, he is also a researcher at the Jeff Bleich Centre for Democracy and Disruptive Technologies on projects related to space, defence, cybersecurity, politics, and law, areas where Vinicius publishes regularly and teaches both in Brazil and Australia.