The environmental aspects of space activities and space law increasingly are being given attention as representing one of the most important future areas which also in the legal context will have to be addressed to guarantee sustainable use of outer space for the benefit of mankind within this broader issue the ever increasing use of outer space the issue of space debris has become ever more important several space object to space object collisions have already occurred most of . Environmental aspects of activities in outer space state of the law and measures of protection proceedings of an international colloquium cologne may 16 19 1988. 2012 1 the indian journal of law and technology volume 8 2012 environmental protection in outer space where we stand and what is needed to make progress with regard to the problem of space debris stephan hobe abstract this paper provides a brief survey of current space law and its applicability to the problem of. In fact as noted by the author in a presentation to the fifty fifth annual session of the legal subcommittee of copuos 2016 1 a major threat to environmental security detected from the early days of space activities is the gap left by article iv of the outer space treaty which to follow bin chengs wording 2 fails to go beyond a limited denuclearization of outer space and a non . Space law outer space treaty space law encompasses national and international law governing activities in outer space the inception of the field of space law began with the launch of the worlds first artificial satellite by the soviet union in october 1957 named sputnik 1 since that time space law has evolved and assumed more importance as mankind has increasingly come to use and rely