Astronaut John Young saluting the flag while jumping, during the Apollo 16 mission, on April 21, 1972.

NASA/Charlie Duke

In 1967, 112 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty that laid the foundation for international space law.
There are no known instances of anyone being charged with committing a crime in space.
But there are three notable times that people or governments tested the rules.

Despite the popular conception of space as a lawless frontier, it turns out you’re still beholden to the authorities when you leave Earth.

There are no known instances of anyone being charged with a crime committed in space. But as space becomes increasingly accessible, unlawful behaviors that regularly occur on Earth will likely accompany humans blasting off into the cosmos.

Sputnik 1 successfully launched and entered Earth’s orbit on October, 4, 1957.

NASA/Asif A. Siddiqi

Still, the laws on the books are decades old and hard to enforce. In 1967, more than 100 nations signed the Outer Space Treaty — essentially, the Magna Carta of space law. The document is heavy on broad principles, but light on specifics.

Broadly, it states that space should be free for use by all nations and that celestial bodies like the moon should be used exclusively for peaceful purposes.

It also bans one nation from claiming outer space and celestial bodies. That’s why Congress passed a law in November 1969 affirming that the Apollo 11 mission planting a flag on the moon was a “a symbolic gesture of national pride in achievement,” and not the US staking a claim on it.

While the treaty is difficult to enforce, if a country, individual, or company were to violate the guidelines — say, by launching a nuclear weapon in space or planting a flag on an asteroid and calling it their own — other spacefaring nations could sanction them.

Leaders of spacefaring nations signing the Outer Space Treaty in 1967.

United Nations

While there are no known criminal charges in space or convictions to date, that could change with more commercial and private actors in space.

On June 23, lawmakers in Canada passed a law that would allow the government to charge Canadian astronauts for crimes committed on the moon.

From destructive missile tests to missing a tax deadline to go on a last-minute mission, here’s how space law has been tested thus far.

1. Russia’s anti-satellite missile tests created a dangerous cloud of debris

This telescope image shows debris from the Cosmos 1408 after it was destroyed by Russia’s anti-satellite weapon, on November 15, 2021.

Numerica Corporation

The law: The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which states that parties should conduct all their activities in outer space “with due regard” to other spacefaring parties

How it was tested: Russia deliberately destroyed its own satellite, creating long-lived orbital debris that imperils surrounding satellites and crewed space stations

Several governments have tested anti-satellite weapons that leave behind trails of space debris in orbit.

In November 2021, Russia conducted an anti-satellite weapon test that deliberately struck Cosmos 1408, one of its own satellites, which had been inoperable for years. The defunct satellite blew into thousands of pieces that continue to orbit Earth, increasing the risk that the debris could one day damage satellites or crewed vehicles. 

On October 24, the International Space Station (ISS) had to move to dodge a piece of space junk from Russia’s Cosmos 1408 satellite, according to NASA.

Various forms of anti-satellite tests have been conducted since 1959 by the United States, Russia, China, and India, according to a database compiled by the Secure World Foundation. Last year, the US became the first space-faring nation to declare a ban on anti-satellite weapons testing.

2. Cleared of accessing an ex-wife’s bank account 240 miles above Earth’s surface

NASA astronaut Anne McClain on December 3, 2018. Though she was later cleared, McClain was accused of committing the first crime in space in 2019.

SHAMIL ZHUMATOV/AFP via Getty Images

The law: Identity theft and improper access to private financial records

How it was tested: A NASA astronaut was accused of accessing her ex-wife’s bank account while living on the ISS

In 2019, NASA astronaut Anne McClain was accused of committing the first crime in space.

During McClain’s stay aboard the ISS from December 2018 to June 2019, the American astronaut’s estranged wife accused McClain of using a NASA-affiliated computer to illegally sign into her personal bank accounts, The New York Times reported.

The ISS has its own intergovernmental agreement that the project’s partner nations signed in 1998. It states that each country involved in the ISS has criminal jurisdiction over its own personnel in space, as long as the victim is not an individual from another country who is also in space.

NASA defended McClain’s reputation before launching an investigation into the incident — ultimately finding that the claims against McClain were false. McClain’s ex-wife, who filed the accusations with the Federal Trade Commission, was later charged with two counts of making false statements to federal authorities.

3. Missing a tax deadline due to a last-minute space voyage

Jack Swigert in an astronaut suit in 1970, the same year he forgot to file his taxes before leaving on a mission.

NASA

The law: US tax law

How it was tested: An Apollo astronaut missed the April 15 tax filing deadline in the 1970s, after blasting off into space at the last minute

In 1970, Jack Swigert, an Apollo 13 astronaut, realized he hadn’t filed his income taxes in time for the April 15 cutoff. There was one problem: He was already in space.

Swigert was a last-minute addition to the Apollo 13 crew. Because he had to scramble after another astronaut was medically disqualified from the mission, he didn’t file his taxes before leaving.

“Uh oh; have you guys completed your income tax?” Swigert asked mission control, according to the official NASA transcript. Mission control erupted in laughter, to which Swigert replied: “It ain’t too funny; things kind of happened real fast down there, and I do need an extension.”

Ultimately, Swigert was granted an extension by the Internal Revenue Service, since he was technically “out of the country.”