to play a major role in the future, it is not irrelevant. It represents the New International Economic Order, or the mindset that wealth and standard of living should be more evenly distributed in the world. This is a trend which is gaining in popularity, and shows the important intellectual tendencies of the developing nations of the world. It should also be kept in mind that"the U.S.-[Russian] domination of space capability is by no means a permanent affair; other nations- some of whom have already signed the Moon Agreement-are try ing to develop such a capability In conclusion, the Moon Agreement was born "almost entirely out of high academic ideals in advance of any practical commercial reality. True space law . will evolve to meet the needs of practical commercial ventures. history teaches that the transition between academic and practical legal regimes can be gradual or traumatic, but that such transitions inevitably occur. Just not as we've seen to date with the Moon Treaty. In absence of any viable plans for lunar development commercially in the near future either by the us or any other nation, this is just as well U.S. Space policy Space policy has been around in the U.S. for nearly a half a century now, and will likely continue as long as there is government funding of space activities or space activities need to be regulated in some manner by the government (likely, forever! ) Policies are usua subject to shorter half-lives than international law. Policy changes can happen as often as the people in power change, and sometimes even more frequently than that While some us policies are technically laws"-for example, anything the US Congress does is technically considered"law" by our form of government-the general practice is to call these directives generated by only one nation as"policies".We reserve the term law" for the international treaties and agreements that are negotiated in a true multilateral nature encompassing many nations Many space-related policies have been enacted in the US over time. Some of these policies remain relevant and in practice for longer periods of time, while some fade fror use rather quickly as the times change and the policy no longer is desirable. We could group them into several topical Telecommunications Launch Remote s General Commercial Space Activities National Space policyto play a major role in the future, it is not irrelevant. It represents the New International Economic Order, or the mindset that wealth and standard of living should be more evenly distributed in the world. This is a trend which is gaining in popularity, and shows the important intellectual tendencies of the developing nations of the world. It should also be kept in mind that "the U.S.-[Russian] domination of space capability is by no means a permanent affair; other nations - some of whom have already signed the Moon Agreement - are trying to develop such a capability. In conclusion, the Moon Agreement was born "almost entirely out of high academic ideals in advance of any practical commercial reality. True space law ... will evolve to meet the needs of practical commercial ventures. History teaches that the transition between academic and practical legal regimes can be gradual or traumatic, but that such transitions inevitably occur." Just not as we've seen to date with the Moon Treaty. In absence of any viable plans for lunar development commercially in the near future either by the US or any other nation, this is just as well. U.S. Space Policy Space policy has been around in the U.S. for nearly a half a century now, and will likely continue as long as there is government funding of space activities or space activities need to be regulated in some manner by the government (likely, forever!). Policies are usually subject to shorter half-lives than international law. Policy changes can happen as often as the people in power change, and sometimes even more frequently than that. While some US policies are technically "laws" – for example, anything the US Congress does is technically considered "law" by our form of government – the general practice is to call these directives generated by only one nation as "policies". We reserve the term "law" for the international treaties and agreements that are negotiated in a true multilateral nature encompassing many nations. Many space-related policies have been enacted in the US over time. Some of these policies remain relevant and in practice for longer periods of time, while some fade from use rather quickly as the times change and the policy no longer is desirable. We could group them into several topical areas: • Telecommunications • Launch • Global Positioning • Remote Sensing • General Commercial Space Activities • National Space Policy