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In the article, the authors reveal the historical and legal aspects of space activities in Ukraine. The historical and legal acts of the Ukrainian SSR and the Soviet Union, regulating the space industry, are analyzed. Considerable attention was paid to the peculiarities of legal regulation of the activities of the main space design bureaus of the time. It is concluded that the space activities of the USSR — in general and the Ukrainian SSR were provided on the basis of sublegislative normative legal acts (resolutions of the Council of Ministers and orders of the Central bodies of the Communist party). However, the lack of the national space law was offset by systematic and full funding of space activities, resulting in the Soviet Union having a powerful space industry. In the conditions of modern development, Ukraine has all the opportunities to achieve significant development of the space industry, using the positive experience of the USSR and opening access to space activities of private investment.

Regulatory tools are a necessary corollary to national and regional space programmes and policies and there has been a noticeable increase in the legislative moves by states interested in developing their commercial space sector. Some national statutes already serve as regulatory prototypes, providing an insight into issues such as risk regulation. Now, the surge in space technology appears to be lessening the traditional divide between old and new space faring nations. Emerging space countries can now focus on new space markets that are driven by technology itself. Choosing the appropriate regulatory form to cover the breadth of space-related activities, from human space flight through to earth observation and satellite-based navigation services, to name but a few, could become a challenge: technology will continue to push the limits of the application and interpretation of relevant space laws, and the international rules in particular. Building bridges between the law regulating space activities and other areas may then become necessary. Suborbital space flight and GNSS are examples of areas where legal certainty can be achieved through such bridge building between related regulatory environments. This paper addresses die bifurcation that has been emerging over the past years within the law governing space activities. Whereas earlier domestic space laws often took on the form of general statutes, as expressions of national legal and administrative culture, recent space activities and tools reflect the growing interaction between a broader spectrum that ranges from (international and domestic) space law through to legal rules of private and public law, including telecommunications. The paper addresses whether the growing division between terrestrially-based and outer space-related activities might impact on the future scope of space law. It also emphasises the importance of maintaining consistency between regulation at national and international level, and the need to maintain the concepts of international state responsibility and international state liability already anchored in international space law. These can be critical to the commercial space sector.

The impact of Germany's recent space policy and this nation's progress towards a national legislation in regards to space activities will be examined and discussed in this paper. The topic of this paper is of great relevance as Germany is one of Europe's leading space faring nations. Not only is it the largest financial contributor to the European Space Agency as of 2012, but also cooperates internationally with other major space faring nations such as the United States of America, Russia, Japan and India, in regards to space activities. Furthermore, Germany is extensively involved in the European undertakings in space. For example, Germany takes part in the production of the Ariane-5 launcher, is greatly involved in the Galileo project, which deals with satellite navigation, and plays a major role in the 'Global Monitoring for Environment and Security' (GMES) initiative. This country's substantial expertise in space technology also plays a role in its relevance in the international field of space activities. The current administration of dealing with Germany's space activities will be examined within this paper along with its progress towards a national legislation. In this regard, the administrative tasks of the German Aerospace Centre (Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt c.V., DLR) are of relevance and will be analysed to define the DLR's space activity management. Moreover, the 4Law Governing the Transfer of Responsibilities for Space Activities' of August the 22nd, 1998 will be examined in order to reveal what is currently being regulated and to anticipate the content which the future German legislation should additionally be composed of.