Andrés Terán
HEKA Law, Ecuador
ateran@heka.com.ec

Introduction

Over the past three years, Latin America has signalled its ambitions in outer space more forcefully than at any previous point in history. Ecuador became the 26th country to sign the Artemis Accords in June 2023¹ and, as of May 2026, eight South American countries – Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Ecuador, Paraguay, Peru and Uruguay – are signatories,² making the region one of the most represented in the Accords after Europe. Ecuador further strengthened its international commitments by acceding to the Registration Convention in March 2025,³ while Colombia ratified the Outer Space Treaty as recently as 2024.⁴ These developments are encouraging. They reflect a growing recognition across the region that participation in the global space economy (projected to exceed $1tn by 2040) cannot be left to others. Yet signing international agreements is only the first step. The harder and more consequential task lies in building the domestic regulatory frameworks that translate those commitments into operational reality: licensing regimes for commercial operators, liability and insurance requirements, spectrum management rules, space object registration procedures and institutional capacity to enforce them.

This article surveys the current state of space law across Latin America, argues that no country in the region has yet achieved a fully mature regulatory ecosystem, though some are more advanced than others and examines why closing this gap matters, not only as a matter of legal compliance but as a precondition for the region’s meaningful participation in the commercial space economy.

Regional landscape

The global space economy is no longer defined solely by the traditional spacefaring powers. Across Latin America, governments have moved with notable speed to signal their participation in the emerging architecture of international space governance. A closer examination of the region reveals a landscape of uneven development. Some countries have invested decades in building space programmes with real technical capacity with agencies, satellites, launch infrastructure and trained personnel. Others are only now taking their first formal steps into the international space governance framework. But what unites virtually all of them is a common deficit with the absence of comprehensive domestic legislation capable of regulating commercial space activities, assigning institutional responsibilities with precision and providing the legal certainty that private operators and investors require.

This asymmetry between international ambition and domestic regulatory maturity is not unique to Latin America, but it is particularly pronounced here. Understanding where each country stands is essential to assessing the region's readiness to participate meaningfully in the next phase of the space economy, what has been built, what remains missing and how wide the gap truly is.

Brazil

Brazil is, by a significant margin, the most advanced country in the region in terms of its space regulatory framework. In July 2024, the enactment of Law No 14,946 established, for the first time, a comprehensive legal framework for all space activities in Brazil.⁵ The law designates the Brazilian Space Agency (AEB) as the regulator for civilian space activities, creates the Brazilian Space Registry (ResBra) for the registration of all national space objects and establishes a system for the investigation and prevention of accidents in space activities (Sipae). The AEB has also issued detailed licensing regulations for commercial launch operations from Brazilian territory, notably through AEB Resolution No 698 of 2021, which provides an operator licensing and launch authorisation framework modelled in part on the United States Federal Aviation Administration’s Part 450 regulations.⁶

Brazil’s Alcântara Space Centre, located near the equator in the state of Maranhão, provides a significant geographic advantage for orbital launches. A Technology Safeguards Agreement (TSA) with the US, ratified after years of political debate, now enables US-origin payloads to be launched from Brazilian territory, and the first commercial orbital launch from Alcântara was anticipated in late 2025. The first commercial orbital launch from Alcantara took place on 22 December 2025, when South Korea's Innospace flew its Hanbit-Nano rocket, although the mission failed shortly after lift-off owing to a propulsion anomaly, and a follow-up launch has been announced for 2026.

Yet even Brazil’s framework, the most developed in Latin America, remains largely untested in practice. The implementing regulations are still being completed, and key questions around satellite spectrum regulation continue under review by ANATEL, the national telecommunications agency. Brazil’s experience demonstrates both how much can be accomplished through sustained legislative effort and how far the journey extends beyond the enactment of a single law.

Argentina

Argentina was the first Latin American nation to create a spaceflight organisation and has one of the longest histories of space activity in the region. The National Space Activities Commission (CONAE), created in 1991, manages the country’s space programme, which includes domestically designed and manufactured satellites, the SAC and SAOCOM series (built by the Argentine firm INVAP) and ground station infrastructure.⁷ Argentina has ratified the core UN space treaties and has declared the satellite industry a national priority through Law No 27,208, which approved the Argentine Geostationary Satellite Plan 2015–2035, to be executed by the state-owned company AR-SAT.

However, Argentina’s regulatory framework for space activities remains fragmented. There is no single comprehensive space law. Instead, the regulatory landscape is composed of a series of decrees, sector-specific laws and institutional mandates that do not amount to a unified licensing and oversight regime for private commercial operators. This patchwork approach, while functional for a programme historically dominated by state actors, may prove insufficient as the commercial space economy evolves.

Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Chile and the wider region

Mexico established its Space Agency (AEM) in 2010 but has not yet enacted comprehensive space legislation. Colombia, which ratified the Outer Space Treaty only in 2024, is in the early stages of developing its institutional framework for space activities. Chile, Peru, Uruguay and Paraguay have similarly committed to international principles without yet building corresponding domestic regulatory structures.⁸

Ecuador’s trajectory illustrates this pattern well. The country signed the Artemis Accords in 2023 and acceded to the Registration Convention in 2025. Yet Ecuador does not have national space legislation, a licensing regime for commercial space operators, or a defined liability and insurance framework for space activities. The gap between Ecuador’s growing international profile and its domestic regulatory reality is significant and representative of the broader regional challenge.

Why domestic regulation matters

Article 6 of the Outer Space Treaty places on states the responsibility for ‘national activities in outer space’, whether carried out by governmental agencies or non-governmental entities, and requires states to authorise and continuously supervise such activities.⁹ Without domestic legislation, this obligation is largely unimplementable. A state that has signed the Artemis Accords and acceded to the Registration Convention but lacks a licensing regime, a national registry procedure or an institutional authority empowered to supervise space operators cannot, in practice, discharge its international responsibilities.

But the case for domestic regulation extends well beyond treaty compliance. The commercial space economy is rapidly evolving, and Latin America has tangible assets to offer geographic advantages for equatorial and polar orbit launches, growing satellite communications markets and increasing demand for space-derived data in agriculture, mining, disaster management and environmental monitoring. Emerging service models, such as Ground Station as a Service (GSaaS), which allows satellite operators to downlink data through shared ground infrastructure rather than building proprietary stations, illustrate the type of commercial activity that requires clear regulatory frameworks to attract investment and operate across borders. And, without clear rules on licensing, liability, insurance, spectrum allocation and data governance, private operators and investors will seek jurisdictions that offer regulatory certainty, typically outside the region. The risk for Latin American countries is not merely one of missed economic opportunity, but of being relegated to a passive role in a space economy that will increasingly shape communications, defence, climate policy and infrastructure.

Globally, 2024 and 2025 have seen an acceleration in the adoption of national space laws and the modernisation of existing frameworks.¹⁰ Countries as diverse as Slovakia, Estonia and Ghana have enacted or drafted space legislation, while major spacefaring nations have updated their regulatory approaches. The European Union has advanced a comprehensive Space Act proposal. Latin America risks falling further behind if it does not match its international commitments with concrete domestic action.

The path forward

For most Latin American countries, the priority is not to replicate the elaborate regulatory architectures of major spacefaring nations, but to establish the minimum viable legal infrastructure like a national space authority with clear jurisdiction, a licensing or authorisation regime for commercial space activities, liability and insurance requirements, and a functional space object registration process. Brazil’s recent legislative experience, including the political complexities it faced in ratifying the TSA with the US and the subsequent passage of Law 14,946, offers instructive lessons, both on the substance of space regulation and on the institutional effort required to bring it about.

Regional cooperation should also be strengthened. The Latin American and Caribbean Network of Universities and Institutions that Research on Space Technology, Policy and Law (ReLaCa Espacio) provides an emerging platform for academic collaboration and knowledge-sharing. The IBA Space Law Committee itself, along with international organisations such as UNOOSA, offers resources and advisory services that developing space nations can leverage to design regulatory frameworks suited to their specific needs and capacities.

Conclusion

Latin America’s engagement with the international space governance architecture has accelerated dramatically. The region’s eight Artemis Accords signatories, together with recent treaty accessions and institutional developments, reflect a genuine and growing commitment to the peaceful exploration and use of outer space. Yet the gap between these international commitments and the domestic regulatory frameworks needed to operationalise them remains wide across most of the region. No country in Latin America has yet achieved a fully mature space regulatory ecosystem.

Brazil has advanced the furthest, but its framework is still being tested and refined. Argentina has institutional depth but regulatory fragmentation. Most other countries, including Ecuador, which has been active on the international stage, are still at the foundational stage of building their domestic legal architecture.

The commercial space economy will not wait for legislation to catch up. Countries that establish clear, predictable and internationally aligned regulatory frameworks will attract the investment, talent and partnerships that define participation in this sector. The path from international aspiration to domestic reality is the most important journey Latin American space law has yet to make.

Notes

1     Ecuador signed the Artemis Accords on 21 June 2023, becoming the 26th signatory. See NASA, 'NASA Welcomes Ecuador as 26th Artemis Accords Signatory' (2023) at: www.nasa.gov/news-release/nasa-welcomes-ecuador-as-26th-artemis-accords-signatory.

2     See US Department of State, 'Artemis Accords' (2026), at: www.state.gov/bureau-of-oceans-and-international-environmental-and-scientific-affairs/artemis-accords.

3     UNOOSA, Status of Treaties (2026). The Registration Convention entered into force for Ecuador on 17 March 2025. See www.unoosa.org/oosa/en/ourwork/spacelaw/treaties/status.

4     Colombia ratified the Outer Space Treaty on 15 April 2024; it entered into force on 21 March 2024. See UNOOSA, Status of Treaties (2026).

5     Law No 14,946/2024, enacted in July 2024, established a comprehensive legal framework for all space activities in Brazil. See 'Year in review: Space Law in Brazil', Lexology (December 2025).

6     AEB Resolution No 698 of 2021 establishes the procedures and requirements for receiving authorisation to carry out commercial launch activities in Brazil.

7     Argentina created CONAE in 1991 (Decree No 995/91) and has ratified the Outer Space Treaty, the Liability Convention and the Registration Convention. Law No 27,208 declared the satellite industry a state policy and national priority.

8     Paraguay signed the Artemis Accords on 7 May 2026, becoming the 67th signatory. See NASA, 'Artemis Accords' (2026).

9     See Article 6 of the Outer Space Treaty (1967): ‘States Parties to the Treaty shall bear international responsibility for national activities in outer space [...] whether such activities are carried on by governmental agencies or by non-governmental entities’.

10   See ‘Space and Satellite wrap up – Legal and regulatory developments in 2025’, Bird & Bird (January 2026).