Space Economy for Developing Countries · Prototype

National Register of Space Objects

What the procedure looks like when a country publishes all of it. Every heading says who acts and what comes out of it. Open the ones you need; every requirement carries the article it comes from, with a link to the instrument.

Under international law, a State that launches an object into outer space must record it. That record determines two things: which State exercises jurisdiction and control over the object while it is in orbit, and which State is liable for any damage it causes. The obligation was agreed in 1975 and binds 77 States today. Building the national machinery that makes it work, which means a register, a procedure and a designated authority, is what remains outstanding in most countries.

Read firstFollow one satellite from a university workshop to the United Nations register›

A university in a developing country builds a satellite the size of a shoebox. It costs less than a delivery van. It will photograph farmland so the agriculture ministry can see which crops are failing. The university has no rocket, so the satellite hitches a ride on someone else's, is carried up to the International Space Station, and is pushed out of a hatch into orbit.

From that moment it belongs to somebody, and somebody is answerable for it. Every card below says who, and ends with what it means for this satellite.

VocabularyThe six words that carry the whole obligation, and what each one means in the treaties›

These terms are not interchangeable, and most confusion in national practice comes from treating them as if they were. Hover any underlined term anywhere in this prototype to see its definition.

Term	What it means	Where it is defined
Space object	Not only the satellite. The term includes component parts of a space object as well as its launch vehicle and parts thereof. Rocket bodies and debris are space objects too, and are largely unregistered	Registration Convention, art. I(b)
Launching State	Four ways to become one, and a State can be one without ever touching a rocket: it launches, it procures the launching, the launch happens from its territory, or from its facility. A single launch can have several launching States at once	Registration Convention, art. I(a)
State of registry	The launching State on whose registry the object is carried. Only one per object. Where there are several launching States they must agree which of them registers it	Registration Convention, arts. I(c) and II.2
Operator	The entity that actually runs the object: a company, a university, a public body. No treaty defines it; national law does. An operator supplies the data and holds the licence, but cannot register anything: a submission sent by an operator is not a valid registration	National law. The limit comes from UNOOSA practice
Permanent Mission	The State's diplomatic office accredited to the United Nations in Vienna. It is the only channel through which registration information reaches the Secretary-General	UNOOSA, Resources on Space Object Registration
Note verbale	An unsigned formal diplomatic communication written in the third person, exchanged between a mission and an organization. It is the instrument that carries both the article II.1 notification and each object's data	Diplomatic practice; the form of every published notification in the ST/SG/SER.E series

The State1 · Must give permission before anyone launches anything, and keep watching afterwards›

Who is bound	The launching State, not the university
What it must do	Authorise the activity in advance, and keep supervising it for as long as it lasts
When	Before launch, and continuously afterwards
How	By issuing a licence under a national rule, and by checking the operator keeps to it
On what basis	Outer Space Treaty 1967, article VI; element 3 of resolution 68/74
If it does not	The State is in breach, and has no legal grip on an object it will answer for anyway

Our satellite: the university asks its own government for permission. Not the country that owns the rocket. Its own.

The State2 · Must keep a list, at home, of every space object it launches›

Who is bound	Every State Party to the Registration Convention. 77 as at 1 January 2026. Once it registers an object it becomes its State of registry
What it must do	Keep a national register of the space objects it launches
When	From the moment it becomes a launching State; in practice, before its first satellite goes up
How	Any way it likes. The treaty says the contents and conditions are "determined by the State of registry concerned"
On what basis	Registration Convention 1975, article II.1
If it does not	Nothing happens immediately, and that is the problem. There is no penalty, so the duty quietly goes unmet for decades

Our satellite: the country needs a list. A spreadsheet would satisfy the treaty. What almost no country has is the procedure that gets a satellite onto the list.

The Permanent Mission3 · Must tell the United Nations, once, that the list exists›

Who is bound	The same State, acting through its Permanent Mission in Vienna
What it must do	Inform the Secretary-General that it has established a national register, and on what terms it is kept
When	Once. Never repeated
How	A note verbale of half a page. The model is in tab 5
On what basis	Registration Convention 1975, article II.1, second sentence
If it does not	The State never appears on the United Nations list of national registries. Only 41 States appear on it. One is African. One is from the Gulf

Our satellite: this is the cheapest obligation in the whole of space law and the most widely ignored. One letter, once, in the lifetime of a country.

The Permanent Mission4 · Must send the United Nations the details of each object. Not the space agency, not the operator›

Who is bound	The State of registry. One State per object, agreed among all launching States
What it must do	Furnish nine items: which State, the name of the object, its designator, the date and place of launch, four orbital numbers, and what it is for
When	"As soon as practicable" after the object is in orbit. The treaty sets no number of days
How	Note verbale from the Permanent Mission, using form UNOOSA/REG/FRM/1
On what basis	Registration Convention 1975, article IV.1
If it does not	The object exists physically but not legally. Nobody can say for certain whose it is, and the State loses the jurisdiction article VIII would have given it

Our satellite: university to space agency, agency to foreign ministry, ministry to mission in Vienna, mission to the United Nations. Four hands. Every hand is a place where it stops for six months.

The State5 · Must say when the object comes down›

Who is bound	The State of registry
What it must do	Notify the Secretary-General of objects no longer in Earth orbit
When	To the greatest extent feasible and as soon as practicable
How	Same channel, same form
On what basis	Registration Convention 1975, article IV.3
If it does not	The global register fills with objects that no longer exist, which makes it less useful for everyone, including for avoiding collisions

Our satellite: a shoebox at 400 kilometres burns up in a year or two. Someone has to remember to say so.

The State6 · Pays if the object causes damage. Always the State, without a ceiling›

Who is bound	The launching State, which can be more than one State at once
What it must do	Compensate. On the ground or against aircraft, liability is absolute: it pays even if nobody was careless. Elsewhere, it pays if at fault
How	Through a claim between States. No financial ceiling in the treaty
On what basis	Liability Convention 1972, articles II and III
If there is no insurance	The public purse pays. This is why national rules require the operator to insure: not to protect the operator, but to protect the State from a liability it already carries

Our satellite: if the shoebox hits somebody else's satellite, the bill goes to the country, not to the university. That is the sentence that makes finance ministries pay attention.

All three actorsWho can do what, and what each one is not allowed to do›

Who	Can	Cannot
The operator university, company, public body	Build and fly the space object. Apply for the licence. Supply the technical data	Register anything. A submission sent straight to the United Nations by an operator is not a valid registration
The State agency, ministry, permanent mission	Authorise, supervise, keep the national register, notify the United Nations through its mission	Escape liability by pointing at the operator. The State answers, then recovers from the operator if national law allows
The United Nations UNOOSA, Vienna	Keep the global register, publish it free of charge, help States write their own rules	Register an object for a State, or oblige a State to act. It records what States send

The confusion that costs countries years. The ITU decides on what frequency and from what orbital slot you may transmit. Its register is a register of frequencies. UNOOSA keeps a register of objects, so it is known which State is in charge of each thing up there. Different procedures, different organizations, different channels: the ITU is approached through the national telecommunications administration, the United Nations through the Permanent Mission. A satellite can have its frequency and be unregistered, and the other way round.

So what is missing is not the law: 77 States already signed up. Not the destination: the United Nations register is public, free and searchable, in tab 6. What is missing in most countries is the middle, a procedure at home that turns the obligation into something an operator can actually do. That is what the rest of this shows.

The procedure as a country would publish it. Thirteen steps, each with the actor who performs it and the thing that comes out of it.

The operator readsThe five facts an investor looks for first: who, how long, how much, what you get, how long it lasts›

Who must register

Any natural or legal person under national jurisdiction that owns or operates an object launched into outer space, including universities and public bodies.

Decision time

30 days

from a complete filing, to entry in the register. Notification to the United Nations follows within 15 days.

Fee

None

Entry carries no fee. The space activity licence, a separate procedure, may.

What you get

A certificate of entry with a national registration number, and publication of the object in the United Nations register.

Validity

Permanent while the object exists, with a duty to report re-entry, change of operator or move to a disposal orbit.

The duty itself: Registration Convention 1975, articles II and IV; jurisdiction follows registration under Outer Space Treaty 1967, article VIII. The 30 days and the absence of a fee are design choices of this prototype, not treaty requirements.

The operator bringsFive things you must already have before you can file, and the article that asks for each›

Requirement	Evidenced by	Why it is asked, and under what authority
Valid space activity licence	Number and date of the administrative act	The parent procedure. Without State authorisation there should be no entry. From Outer Space Treaty article VI, and element 3 of resolution 68/74
Liability cover	Policy or guarantee: insurer, number, amount, period	The State is internationally liable without ceiling under the Liability Convention 1972. Insurance protects the State, not the operator
Frequency coordination	Evidence of filing with the ITU by the national telecommunication administration	Advance Publication and coordination under ITU Radio Regulations article 9, recording in the Master International Frequency Register under article 11. Without a frequency the satellite cannot operate even if registered
Measured orbital parameters	Nodal period, inclination, apogee, perigee	Registration Convention article IV.1(d). These four cannot be omitted
Debris mitigation plan	Technical document	COPUOS Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines

Everyone, in orderThe thirteen steps: who performs each one and what comes out of it›

#	Step	Who performs it	What comes out
0	Tell the United Nations the register exists	Permanent Mission in Vienna	A note verbale, published by the United Nations as an ST/SG/SER.E/INF document. Once in a country's lifetime
1	Apply for a space activity licence	Operator	A filed application with a file number
2	Technical and legal assessment	National authority	An assessment report. Belgium requires an external opinion for CubeSats, at the applicant's cost
3	Decision on the licence	Competent authority, usually a minister	An administrative act with number and date, which later travels inside the register entry
4	Pre-registration	National authority	A national registration number, assigned before launch so the object is identifiable from the first minute. Belgian practice
5	Agree who registers the object	National authority with the other launching States	A written understanding. One object, one register, under article II.2
6	Launch and notice of success	Operator	A launch notice within the period set by national rule
7	Submit the final data	Operator	The completed national form with the real orbital parameters
8	Verification	National authority	Confirmation that the data are consistent and match the licence
9	Entry in the register	National authority	A public register entry and a certificate of entry for the operator. See tab 3
10	Transfer to the foreign ministry	National authority	An internal note carrying the completed United Nations form
11	Notification to the United Nations	Permanent Mission in Vienna only	A note verbale with the form, by diplomatic channel and by e-mail to soregister@unoosa.org
12	Publication	UNOOSA	An ST/SG/SER.E document and the object's appearance in the global online index
13	Maintenance	National authority, on the operator's reports	Updated entries for change of operator, disposal orbit and re-entry, the last one required by article IV.3

The mistake that keeps happening. A national space agency sends the form straight to UNOOSA and believes the object is registered. It is not. UNOOSA states it plainly: registration "can only be done by the Government of a State of registry through the Permanent Missions accredited to the United Nations… Direct submissions from national space agencies, academic institutions and private entities are not considered valid registration submissions." UNOOSA, Resources on Space Object Registration.

Thirty-nine fields in seven blocks. Each carries where the requirement comes from, which is what lets a country defend why it asks for each item and, more importantly, why it asks for nothing else. The tags are links.

Treaty required by the Registration Convention 62/101 recommended by the General Assembly National practice of real registers, not required by treaty

A · Identification

0a. New registration, or update of an object already registered? Official form, Part A

0b. If an update: previous United Nations document Official form

1. Name or designation of the object Treaty art. IV.1(b)

2. International COSPAR designator Res. 62/101

Official mask yyyy-nnnn-aaaa. Obtained from the SPACEWARN Bulletin or from the UNOOSA Online Index after launch

3. National registration number Treaty art. IV.1(b)

4. Type of object National

5. Designator physically marked on the object Treaty art. V

B · States and actors

6. State of registry Treaty art. IV.1(a)

One and only one per object, article II.2

7. Other launching States Treaty art. I(a)

8. Owner National

9. Operator Res. 62/101

10. Manufacturer National

Italian Law 89/2025, article 16

11. Constellation National

C · Launch

12a. Date of launch, UTC Treaty art. IV.1(c)

The official form separates date and time, and requires yyyy-mm-dd

12b. Time of launch, UTC Official form

13. Territory or location of launch Treaty art. IV.1(c)

UNOOSA catalogue of launch sites; includes deployment from a space station

14. Launch vehicle Voluntary

15. Launch service provider National

16. Date and time of deployment National

Not in the official form. Essential where the object is deployed from a space station, because the rocket launch date and the orbit insertion date differ. Belgian practice

D · Orbit

17. Nodal period art. IV.1(d)(i)

18. Inclination art. IV.1(d)(ii)

19. Apogee art. IV.1(d)(iii)

20. Perigee art. IV.1(d)(iv)

21. Celestial body orbited Voluntary

22. Geostationary position Res. 62/101

E · Function and capabilities

23. General function Treaty art. IV.1(e)

25. Radio frequencies National

The field that links to the ITU file

26. Autonomous manoeuvrability National

27. Official mission website Res. 62/101

24. Mission objectives Res. 62/101

F · Life cycle

28. Date the object ceased to function, UTC Res. 62/101

29a. Date moved to a disposal orbit, UTC Res. 62/101

29b. Physical conditions on moving to the disposal orbit Res. 62/101

A field of its own in the official form. See the COPUOS Space Debris Mitigation Guidelines

30. Decay, re-entry or de-orbit, UTC Treaty art. IV.3

A treaty obligation, not a courtesy

F bis · Change of supervision — Part C of the official form: four fields, not one

31a. Date of change in supervision, UTC Res. 62/101

31b. Identity of the new owner or operator Res. 62/101

31c. Previous orbital position Res. 62/101

31d. New orbital position Res. 62/101

31e. Change of function of the space object Res. 62/101

G · Administrative traceability — no treaty requires it; it is what makes the procedure auditable

33. National authorisation number National

34. Date of authorisation National

35. Date of entry National

36. Date notified to the UN National

37. Resulting UN document National

39. File status National

38. Insurance policy or guarantee National

This is the thesis. The operator types once. Three different documents come out, each issued by a different actor, in a different format, for a different audience. Today, in the countries that do register, these three are prepared by hand, separately and months apart, which is where data is lost and where the procedure becomes expensive.

Issued by the national authorityA certificate of entry, handed to the operator, and a public entry in the national register›

Who issues itThe national authority that keeps the register

What it isAn administrative act: a numbered certificate, and the corresponding public entry

Who receives itThe operator, and the general public through the register website

Fill in the form and press generate.

Prepared by the State, sent by the Permanent MissionA note verbale carrying form UNOOSA/REG/FRM/1 to the Secretary-General›

Who issues itThe Permanent Mission in Vienna. Not the space agency, not the operator

What it isA diplomatic note with the four-part official form attached

Who receives itThe Secretary-General, through UNOOSA. Copy to soregister@unoosa.org

Fill in the form and press generate.

Published by UNOOSAAn ST/SG/SER.E document, and the object appears in the global online index›

Who issues itUNOOSA, on behalf of the Secretary-General

What it isA United Nations document in the ST/SG/SER.E series, plus an entry in the public online index

Who receives itEveryone. Access is free and open under article III

UNOOSA does four things before publishing: validation, was it sent through the official channel; verification, is the mechanism right, is there no conflict with article II.2, are the technical data consistent; document processing, editing and translation; and dissemination, publication in the online index. Source: ST/SPACE/95, p. 47.

What that looks like in practice is in tab 6.

Produced automatically, read by systemsThe same data in machine-readable form, so nobody types it a second time›

Who issues itThe registry system itself, from the same filing

What it isA structured record carrying its own legal basis

Who consumes itThe register website, other administrations, and any system that needs the data without re-keying it

Fill in the form and press generate.

What a national register looks like once it is published: a public list anyone can consult, and one entry opened in full. The entries below are illustrative and the country is fictitious, shown so that the finished result can be seen rather than described.

National Register of Space Objects — public consultation Maintained by the National Space Authority · Established under Regulation 14/2025 · Notified to the Secretary-General under article II.1 on 3 February 2026 (ST/SG/SER.E/INF/48)

Entry	Object	COSPAR	Operator	Launched	Status	UN document
XX-2026-001	Ubuntu-1 CubeSat, Earth observation	2026-054AB	National University	14/03/2026	In orbit	ST/SG/SER.E/1204
XX-2026-002	Ubuntu-2 CubeSat, Earth observation	2026-054AC	National University	14/03/2026	In orbit	ST/SG/SER.E/1204
XX-2026-003	MeteoSat-N Microsatellite, weather	2026-101A	National Meteorological Service	08/07/2026	In orbit	ST/SG/SER.E/1219
XX-2024-001	Pathfinder-1 CubeSat, technology demonstration	2024-033K	National University	19/02/2024	Re-entered 02/2026	ST/SG/SER.E/1102 and Add.1
XX-2026-004	ConnectSat-1 Satellite, communications	—	ConnectCo Ltd	expected 11/2026	Pre-registered	pending launch

Five columns do the work: the national number that identifies the object at home, the COSPAR designator that identifies it worldwide, who operates it, whether it is still up there, and the United Nations document where it was published. The last column is what proves the State met its obligation. Illustrative data.

Anyone can consultOne entry opened in full: what the public sees when it clicks on XX-2026-001›

NATIONAL REGISTER OF SPACE OBJECTS
Entry No. XX-2026-001                    Status: in orbit
────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────

OBJECT
    Designation                Ubuntu-1
    Type                       CubeSat, 3U
    International designator   2026-054AB
    Designator marked          Yes

TITLE
    State of registry          [State]
    Other launching States     United States of America
    Owner                      National University
    Operator                   National Space Authority
    Manufacturer               National University, Faculty of Engineering

LAUNCH
    Date and time              14/03/2026 07:21:40 UTC
    Location                   Kennedy Space Center, United States of America
    Vehicle                    Falcon 9
    Deployment                 02/04/2026 11:05:00 UTC, from the
                               International Space Station

ORBIT
    Nodal period               92.7 minutes
    Inclination                51.6 degrees
    Apogee                     417 km
    Perigee                    405 km

FUNCTION
    General function           Earth observation and education
    Objectives                 Multispectral imaging for agricultural and
                               water resource monitoring; training of
                               national engineers in satellite operations
    Radio frequencies          437.250 MHz downlink · 145.900 MHz uplink
    Autonomous manoeuvrability No
    Mission website            www.example.gov/space-register/xx-2026-001

FILE
    National authorisation     2026/01 of 20/01/2026
    Liability cover            Policy 884-2026, USD 60 million,
                               01/03/2026 to 01/03/2031
    Entered in the register    15/04/2026
    Notified to the UN         28/04/2026
    United Nations document    ST/SG/SER.E/1204
    Re-entry                   the object remains in orbit

────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────────
Legal basis: Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into
Outer Space, 1975, articles II and IV; General Assembly resolution
62/101. Illustrative data, demonstration prototype.

Why publishing it mattersWhat a country gains by putting the register online, beyond compliance›

It answers the investor's first question without a meeting. Someone considering a satellite venture can see, in thirty seconds, that the country has a working procedure, how long it takes and who to call.
It gives the operator proof. A public entry with a number is what a bank, an insurer or a partner asks for.
It makes the obligation auditable. The last column shows which objects reached the United Nations and which did not. A gap becomes visible to the State itself, not only to Vienna.
It is what "readable by machines" means in practice. The same records feed the site, the notification to the United Nations and any exchange with another administration, without anyone re-typing them.

Article II.1 of the Registration Convention requires each State Party to inform the Secretary-General that it has established its national register. Once. Half a page. It is the cheapest obligation in space law and the most widely ignored.

Of 193 Member States, only 41 have made this notification. Exactly one is African and one is from the Gulf. There are States that are Party to the Convention, have objects entered in the United Nations register, and have never notified that they hold a national register: they have been in breach for between three and forty-one years of a duty discharged with one letter. UNOOSA index of national registries.

Sent by the Permanent MissionThe model note verbale, ready to complete›

Who issues itThe Permanent Mission in Vienna

What it isA note verbale, published by the United Nations in the ST/SG/SER.E/INF series

How oftenOnce in the lifetime of a country

STATE
SEAL

Permanent Mission of [STATE] to the United Nations · Vienna

Note verbale

Ref. NV/[NUMBER]/2026 · Notification under article II, paragraph 1, of the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space, 1975

Verify

The Permanent Mission of [STATE] to the United Nations (Vienna) presents its compliments to the Office for Outer Space Affairs and, in accordance with article II, paragraph 1, of the Convention on Registration of Objects Launched into Outer Space of 1975, has the honour to inform that [STATE] has established a national registry of space objects launched and carried on its registry.

The registry is maintained by [NATIONAL COMPETENT AUTHORITY], pursuant to [NATIONAL INSTRUMENT, number and date]. The conditions and terms under which it is maintained are as follows:

Entry is mandatory for every space object in respect of which [STATE] is both a launching State and the State of registry.
The registry records the items listed in article IV of the Convention, together with those recommended in General Assembly resolution 62/101.
The registry is publicly accessible and may be consulted at [WEB ADDRESS].
Information is transmitted to the Secretary-General through this Permanent Mission as soon as practicable after entry.

[NAME, TITLE, E-MAIL, TELEPHONE] is designated as the national focal point for matters relating to registration.

The Permanent Mission of [STATE] to the United Nations (Vienna) avails itself of this opportunity to renew to the Office for Outer Space Affairs the assurances of its highest consideration.

[PLACE], [DATE]Seal of the Permanent Mission

Office for Outer Space Affairs
United Nations Office at Vienna
Vienna International Centre
PO Box 500, 1400 Vienna, Austria

What happens next. UNOOSA publishes the notification in the ST/SG/SER.E/INF series and the State appears in the index of national registries. Forty-one States appear on that index today. Demonstration prototype; the QR code above is illustrative and resolves to an example address.

Drafted from the text of article II.1 and from the structure of published notifications in the ST/SG/SER.E/INF series. Before use it should be checked against two or three real notifications, so that the wording matches what Vienna already accepts.

Assembled by the StateThe four things a country needs before it can send that letter, none of which requires an act of parliament›

A designated national authority. Even by ministerial decision. Chile placed it in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs by Supreme Decree.
An instrument, even a regulation, stating what is entered and who keeps it. The treaty leaves the contents to the State.
A place where the register can be consulted. A web page is enough.
A named focal point with an e-mail address.

That is the argument for a pilot: a State can start with what it already has, and the full law comes later. Doing it in the other order is why the obligation has gone unmet for forty years in some countries.

Yes, the global register is public today, and free. Article III of the Registration Convention requires the Secretary-General to maintain it and provides for full and open access. Each entry appears as a document in the ST/SG/SER.E/… series, or A/AC.105/INF/… for submissions under resolution 1721 B (XVI), the voluntary channel used by States that are not Party.

Published by UNOOSAThe four places where the global register lives, and what you can do in each›

Where	What you can do there
Online Index of Objects Launched into Outer Space	The searchable global register. Filter by State, orbital status, launch facility, year and, critically, by whether registration information was submitted or not. That filter makes the gap visible object by object
Submissions by State and organization	One page per country: its status under the Convention, a link to its national register if it has one, whether it has a focal point, and every submission it has made. A country can see its own record in thirty seconds
Index of national registries	The article II.1 notifications. Forty-one States appear. This is the list a country joins by sending the letter in tab 5
National focal points	Who to contact in each country. UNOOSA has details from more than seventy States and organizations

Written by UNOOSAThey already published the doctrine: the 2025 Toolkit on Good Registration Practices›

ST/SPACE/95, Toolkit on Good Registration Practices for Objects Launched into Outer Space (2025), with a foreword by the Director of UNOOSA. It sets out good practice, the treatment of deployment from a space station, and how submissions are processed and published.

This prototype does not restate that toolkit. It turns it into a working procedure, which is the part UNOOSA does not do and UNCTAD does.

The gap, in one paragraphIf the global register is already public, what exactly is missing?›

The global register is the destination, not the road. What does not exist in most countries is the national side: the register the State is required to keep, the procedure by which an operator gets into it, and the published page that tells that operator what to do. About 91.5 per cent of functional objects have been registered with the United Nations, but only 41 States have told the United Nations that they keep a national register at all. The gap is not in Vienna. It is in the capital.

Registration rate from the foreword by the Director of UNOOSA in ST/SPACE/95, p. iv: 19,928 of approximately 21,750 functional objects, as at August 2025. It counts functional objects, not rocket bodies or debris, which are space objects under article I(b) and are largely unregistered.

Nothing here is invented. Every field, deadline and step comes from an instrument in force or from the practice of a real national register.

Binding on StatesThe three treaties, what each contributes, and how many States are bound›

Instrument	What it contributes
Convention on Registration, 1975 77 States Parties	Article II: the duty to keep a register and to notify it. Article III: the United Nations register and full and open access. Article IV.1: the data that cannot be omitted. Article IV.3: the duty to report re-entry. Article V: physical marking. Party count as at 1 January 2026, A/AC.105/C.2/2026/CRP.9/Rev.1
Outer Space Treaty, 1967 118 States Parties	Article VI: the State authorises and continuously supervises its non-governmental entities, which is where the licence comes from. Article VIII: jurisdiction and control follow registration, which is why all of this exists
Liability Convention, 1972 100 States Parties	The State's liability for damage caused by its space object, which is what justifies requiring insurance

The number that carries the argument: 118 States accepted that jurisdiction follows registration, but only 77 accepted the instrument that makes registration work, and only 41 have told the United Nations they keep a register at all.

Recommended by the United NationsThe resolutions, the official form and the toolkit›

Instrument	What it contributes
Resolution 62/101 (2007)	The additional fields, the treatment of shared launches, and change of supervision
Resolution 68/74 (2013)	The elements of national space legislation, including authorisation and insurance
Form UNOOSA/REG/FRM/1	The four-part structure of the notification and the exact format of each item. Also in Excel and Spanish
Toolkit ST/SPACE/95 (2025)	Good practice, deployment from a space station, and the publication process

Copied from countries that already do itWhich national register each design decision came from›

Country	What was taken from it
Belgium	Pre-registration before launch, mandatory external opinion for CubeSats, the frequency and manoeuvrability fields, and full administrative traceability
Italy, Law 89/2025	Manufacturer, constellation membership, and the supplementary register for transferred objects
United Arab Emirates	The end-to-end sequence of the procedure, as documented in ST/SPACE/95
United Kingdom, South Africa, Chile	Models for publishing the register and for designating the competent authority

What this prototype is not. It is not a government service and does not claim to be. It represents no State. Sample entries are illustrative. It is a demonstration of what the procedure looks like when published in full, made to be discussed with UNOOSA and with interested countries. Nothing typed here is transmitted or stored.