Selected Examples of National Laws Governing Space Activities: Russian Federation

 

 

[UNOFFICIAL TRANSLATION]

No 104 - Statute on Licensing Space Operations

2 February 1996

1. This Statute has been drafted in accordance with the Law of the Russian Federation "On Space Operations," and resolution No 1418 of the RF Government dated 24 December 1994 "On Licensing Individual Kinds of Activity," and establishes procedures for licensing space activities in the Russian Federation for scientific and national economic purposes.

2. Licensing of space operations in the Russian Federation has the purpose of state regulation with regard to supporting national interests and security, observance of legislation in effect and the international obligations of the Russian Federation with respect to studying and using outer space, development of the space services market, and protection of the interests of its users.

3. Space operations subject to licensing are those of legal entities regardless of their organizational and legal form, and of individual entrepreneurs of the Russian Federation, and also space operations of foreign citizens and organizations when carried out under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation. Space operations subject to licensing include the making (encompassing production and testing) of space-rocket complexes and their component parts, storage, readying for launch, launching and utilizing space vehicles, and also the control of space missions.

4. In the Russian Federation, the Russian Space Agency issues licenses for space operations for scientific and national economic purposes.

5. To obtain a license, the applicant shall submit to the Russian Space Agency:

 (a) an application for granting of a license with indication of: for legal entities: their name, organizational and legal form, legal address, account number and name of bank; for sole proprietors: last name, first name, patronymic, identity card information (series, number, when and by whom issued), place of residence; type of activity; effective time of license;

 (b) copies of constitutive documents, and unless they are notarized, with presentation of originals;

 (c) a copy of the state registration of the legal entity;

 (d) a document confirming payment for examining the application;

 (e) tax agency certification of registration or a certificate of state registration of an individual as a sole proprietor with tax agency seal;

 (f) permit of the State Committee for Radio Frequencies affiliated with the RF Ministry of Communications for using frequency bands to develop and/or operate electronic satellite equipment (when licensing operations involving the development and use of satellite communications equipment);

 (g) applicant's guarantee that foreign satellite equipment put into orbit by Russian launch facilities will be entered in the national register of the equipment's proprietor nation;

 (h) documents confirming the safety of space operations (including ecological, fire and explosion safety) and the reliability of space equipment;

 (i) a license as stipulated by article 27 of the RF Law "On State Secrecy."

6. Foreign legal entities and sole proprietors acting as a client or co-executor of operations, in addition to applications and registration documents confirming performance of their operations under the jurisdiction of the Russian Federation, shall submit:

 (a) a contract between the client and the chief executor of the operations;

 (b) documents confirming the safety of the stated type of activity and the reliability of the equipment to be used;

 (c) a copy of a national license granting the right to be engaged in space operations (if such provision is made by the respective national legislation);

 (d) proofs of financial reliability guaranteeing realization of the stated type of space operations.

7. Following submission of the documents specified in items 5 and 6 of this Statute, the Russian Space Agency when necessary shall organize additional expert examination of the stated type of space operations.

8. On the stage of additional expert examination of the stated type of space operations, the Russian Space Agency may require from a Russian or foreign applicant engineering (design) materials confirming the feasibility of the stated type of space operations.

Requiring the applicant to submit other documents not stipulated by this Statute shall be prohibited.

9. All documents submitted for obtaining a license shall be registered by the Russian Space Agency.

10. A license for the stated type of space operations shall be granted under condition of:

 (a) submission of the complete set of documents specified in items 5 and 6 of this Statute;

 (b) an affirmative conclusion of the expert commission (in case additional expert examination has been done).

11. In accordance with the results of examination of submitted documents and expert conclusion, the Russian Space Agency shall make a decision to grant (or deny) a license for the stated type of space operations.

12. The decision to grant or deny a license shall be made within 30 days of receipt of the application with all necessary documents.

In the case where additional expert examination is needed, the decision shall be made within 15 days after receiving the expert conclusion, but not later than 60 days after submission of the application with necessary documents.

In isolated cases, depending on the complexity and volumes of materials subject to expert evaluation, the time of making a decision to grant or deny a license may be additionally extended by as much as 30 days by the director general of the Russian Space Agency.

13. Licenses are issued for a period of not less than three years.

Licenses may be granted for a period of less than three years at the request of the person making application. Extension of the effective time of the license shall be done by the procedure established for obtaining it. A separate license is granted for each type of space operations.

14. The license shall be signed by the director general of the Russian Space Agency (in his absence, by the deputy director general) and witnessed by a seal.

15. License forms shall provided with safeguards on the level of securities for the bearer. They are documents of strict accountability, and have an accounting series and number. Acquisition, accounting and storage of license forms shall be done by the Russian Space Agency.

16. Notification of license denial is sent to the applicant in written form within three days of making the corresponding decision with indication of the reasons for denial.

Grounds for license denial are: false information or misrepresentations in documents submitted by the applicant; a negative conclusion by the expert commission.

17. A license shall be issued after the applicant has submitted a document confirming payment.

18. Additional, including independent, expert evaluation is conducted in the case where the stated type of space operations is not included in Russia's Federal Space Program, or when commercial space projects are to be carried out.

19. The additional expert evaluation shall be conducted by science organizations or independent experts on a contractual basis on the instructions of the Russian Space Agency.

20. The time of conducting the expert evaluation shall be not more than 30 days from the data of submission of the application with all necessary documents. In isolated cases, depending on the complexity of the stated type of operations, the time of conducting expert evaluation may be extended as much as another 30 days by the Russian Space Agency, but within the time limits established in item 12 of this Statute.

The expert conclusion shall be signed by the supervisor of a science organization or by the director of a creative team of independent experts, and submitted in accordance with a deed of delivery and acceptance of the Russian Space Agency.

21. General provisions: the license is valid only for the type of space operations indicated therein; the licensee shall have no right to transfer or sell the license to another.

When a legal entity is dissolved, or when the certificate of state registration of an individual proprietor is no longer in effect, the license granted to him loses its legal validity.

In the case of reorganization, a change of name of the legal entity, a change of identity card information of a sole proprietor, or if the license is lost, the licensee is obligated to apply for reissue within 15 days.

Application for reissue shall be done by the procedure established for obtaining a license.

Until a license is reissued, the licensee shall continue operations based on the previously issued license, and in case the license has been lost, on the basis of a temporary permit granted by the Russian Space Agency.

22. In the process of licensing the stated type of space operations, the Russian Space Agency shall: disinterestedly examine applications of legal entities and sole proprietors for the right of obtaining a license; meet the requirements of this Statute; monitor the licensed operations; give the licensee a 3-day notice of license suspension or annulment; enter in the "Conditions for Conducting Space Operations" field on the license form any modifications stemming from newly assumed obligations of the Russian Space Federation.

23. The licensee shall: meet the general and special conditions of the license throughout its effective period; allow persons designated by the Russian Space Agency to verify the conditions of use of the license for the space operations indicated therein; report to the Russian Space Agency cessation of the stated type of space operations; return the license and cease the type of space operations permitted by this license based on a decision of the Russian Space Agency; reply in written form to queries of the Russian Space Agency relative to the stated type of operations.

24. The Russian Space Agency shall have the right:

 (a) to query the licensee about observance of the conditions of the license;

 (b) to require that the licensee at the time of readying for launch be able to produce a certificate of conformance of the space facilities and insurance policy to the mandatory insurance of space operations in accordance with legislation of the Russian Federation;

 (c) to carry out verification monitoring of licensee operations with respect to meeting the conditions of the license;

 (d) to shut down operations of readying for launch, or other operations at the site of conducting space operations if: carrying them out threatens the health and safety of people, and also the state interests and security of the Russian Federation; operations are being conducted without a license, or in violation of the conditions of its use.

25. The Russian Space Agency shall suspend or annul license coverage in cases of: failure of the licensee to comply with instructions or orders of state agencies, or discontinuance of operations of a legal entity, as well as of a sole proprietor, in conformance with the laws of the Russian Federation; discovery of false data in documents submitted for obtaining a license; dissolution of a legal entity or cessation of coverage of the certificate of state registration of a sole proprietor; violation by a licensee of the conditions of license coverage; submission of the corresponding application by a licensee.

26. A decision to suspend or annul a license shall be reported to the licensee and to agencies of the State Tax Service of the Russian Federation in written form within three days after such a decision is made.

27. The Russian Space Agency shall keep a register of issued, suspended and annulled licenses.

28. The applicant's fee for examining an application for issuance of a license and the fee for granting the license shall be determined on the basis of corresponding expenditures for the following: examining and recording the license application, and organizing work of the expert committee (in case of additional expert evaluation of the stated type of activity); conducting expert evaluation and preparing the expert conclusion; drawing up and recording the license, entering it in the database, maintaining the information database;

29. The fee for examining the application and granting the license shall go to the income of the federal budget.

30. The fee for examining the application is not refundable to the applicant in the case of license denial based on the results of expert evaluation.

31. The procedure for determining the fee for examining the application and granting the license for the stated type of space operations shall be established by the Russian Space Agency by agreement with the RF Ministry of Finances and the RF Ministry of Economics.

32. Funding of disbursements of the Russian Space Agency that are associated with carrying out licensing of space operations shall be provided within the limits of monies allocated by the Russian Space Agency for maintaining its central apparatus.

33. Parties guilty of carrying out space operations without a license or in violation of the conditions of its use shall bear responsibility under the system established by legislation of the Russian Federation.

34. Russian Space Agency executives and officials empowered to conduct licensing operations bear the responsibility for violation or improper performance of established procedure in conducting licensing operations in accordance with the legislation in effect.

35. The decisions and actions of the Russian Space Agency, which is empowered to license space operations, are subject to appeal by established procedure.

 

 

Resolution No 104 of Russian Federation Government dated 2 February 1996, Moscow: "On Ratification of Provisions for Licensing Space Operations." The Government of the Russian Federation resolves: to ratify the proposed statute on licensing of space operations.

[signed] Russian Federation Government
Chairman V. Chernomyrdin.

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