Blog by: Lauren Barnhorn

The Trump administration, by signing Executive Order 14369 “Ensuring American Space Superiority,” has violated international law regarding space resources codified in the Outer Space Treaty. The Outer Space Treaty, signed by the United States in 1967, sets out multiple principles regarding the extraction and national appropriation of outer space that are irreconcilable with the recently signed executive order.[i] The Outer Space Treaty declares that outer space and the exploration of it is for all of mankind and therefore, not one country may claim the economic benefits from it.[ii] In addition, under the OST, countries may not make claims of sovereignty of the moon or other celestial bodies by occupation, or “any other means.”[iii] It would seem that the United States is extending its claim over the moon and other celestial bodies through private and public means of occupation and extraction in violation of the OST.

Executive Order 14369 is overly broad in its intentions to secure American interests in space including growing the commercial space economy, mining celestial bodies, and building infrastructure on the moon.[iv] Building infrastructure on the moon would involve the extraction of various natural resources of interest such as precious metals and other rare isotopes that could be transported to Earth to sell.[v] There is no international agreement over who has property rights regarding the natural resources found on celestial bodies and the current binding law over such resources is only concerned with research purposes.[vi] Sovereign nations have the right to use and collect their natural resources in any way that furthers its interests; however, this only extends to their territorial boundaries.[vii] There are multiple principles recognized where a nation’s rights over its natural resources are limited to its boundaries and beyond. A coastal state may only declare sovereign rights over the natural resources within 200 nautical miles of its shores.[viii] Nations only have sovereignty over the airspace directly above their territories and cannot fly into other nation’s territory without permission.[ix] Analogously, if the United States wants to exploit the natural resources of the moon and other celestial bodies, it must comply with international law which governs beyond the boundaries of the United States.

Congress has hinted at its interest in extracting space resources with the passage of multiple laws implicating economic curiosity over the moon and other celestial bodies.[x] Executive Order 14369 requires the U.S. Department of Commerce to effectuate other Space Act Agreements which would implicate H.R. 2262, the U.S. Commercial Space Launch Competitiveness Act.[xi] The Act states that the President, through federal agencies, will “facilitate the commercial exploration and commercial recovery of space resources by U.S. citizens” and “promote the right of U.S. citizens to engage in commercial exploration for and commercial recovery of space resources free from harmful interference, in accordance with such obligations and subject to authorization and continuing supervision by the federal government.”[xii] The current Administration has implied that it is shifting away from international cooperation to prioritize private uses of celestial entities similar to H.R. 2262 and does not view outer space as a “global commons.”[xiii] The OST specifically carves out a provision that requires nations to bear the obligation to have its citizens conform with the treaty, something which the United States is disregarding.[xiv] No one country owns space and therefore cannot allow its citizens, under federal supervision, to extract its resources to further economic interests without collaborating with other international entities and amending the OST. This is incompatible with the meaning of the OST and is exactly the type of interference from a sovereign entity that the OST was created to prevent.

For millenniums, every generation from every walk of life has looked up to the heavens and wondered what was out there. Once humankind first stepped onto the moon, it became a race to understand more. This need to understand and benefit from space can become a curse if there is not international cooperation. Armed conflict tends to follow the need to exploit natural resources.[xv] This Executive Order calls for military actions in space to “secure and defend American vital national and economic security interests.”[xvi] These actions imply that the United State has asserted ownership over the moon and space without any consideration to signed treaties. The United States must adhere to international law concerning outer space to ensure the interests of all mankind and promote cooperation to secure the continuance of scientific discovery and the peaceful uses of space.

[i] G.A. Res. 2222 (XXI), art. 2 (Jan 27, 1967) [https://perma.cc/6V8S-FZ7B].

[ii] Id. art. 1.

[iii] G.A. Res. 2222 (XXI), supra note i.

[iv] Exec. Order No. 14369, 90 Fed. Reg. 60537 (Dec. 18, 2025) [https://perma.cc/24EG-X2T9].

[v] See Rachel Lindbergh, Cong. Rsch. Serv., R48144, Space Resource Extraction: Overview and Issues for Congress https://www.congress.gov/crsproduct/R48144#:~:text=Under%20the%20Space%20Resource%20Exploration,in%20

accordance%20with%20applicable%20law [https://perma.cc/9MHT-2A82].

[vi] G.A. Res. 2222 (XXI), supra note i.

[vii] G.A. Res. 1803, at 2 (Dec. 14, 1962) [https://perma.cc/F869-5XNL].

[viii] U.N. Convention of the Law of the Sea, Dec. 10, 1982, 1833 U.N.T.S. 397 [https://perma.cc/DLB8-D9KD].

[ix] U.N. Convention on International Civil Aviation, Dec. 7, 1944, 296 U.N.T.S. 1948 [https://perma.cc/63UD-PCE3].

[x] Lindbergh, supra note v.

[xi] Exec. Order No. 14369, supra, note iv.

[xii] H.R. 2262, 114th Congress (2015) (enacted) [https://perma.cc/2TAV-GW8L].

[xiii] See Exec. Order. No. 13914, 85 Fed. Reg. 20381 (Apr. 6, 2020) [https://perma.cc/87AA-47DR]; Off. Of. Space Com. President Signs Executive Order on Space Resource Utilization (2020) https://space.commerce.gov/president-signs-executive-order-on-space-resource-utilization/ [https://perma.cc/6VBL-C3YY].

[xiv] G.A. Res. 2222 (XXI), supra note i, at art. 6.

[xv] See Nico Schrijver, Natural Resources, Permanent Sovereignty Over, Oxford Pub. Int’l. L., (June 2008), at 8 https://opil.ouplaw.com/display/10.1093/law:epil/9780199231690/law-9780199231690-e1442# [https://perma.cc/BQF8-37MY].

[xvi] Exec. Order No. 14369, supra note iv, §2.