The Luxembourg Parliament has adopted a draft law on the exploration and use of space resources, making the Grand Duchy the first European country to offer an official framework for private investors and operators.

Coming into force on August 1, it acts as a legal and regulatory framework which ensures private operators ownership of the resources they extract from space and establishes procedures for authorising and supervising space exploration missions.

The legal framework represents a key action within a wider strategy implemented by the Luxembourg government through its SpaceResources.lu initiative which seeks to support the long-term economic development of new and innovative activities in the space industry.

"Luxembourg is the first adopter in Europe of a legal and regulatory framework recognising that space resources are capable of being owned by private companies," Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Economy, Etienne Schneider, said in a statement.

He said the legal framework is "part of the expertise ecosystem and the business-friendly, innovation-nurturing environment" which Luxembourg offers space industry companies.

"By adopting almost unanimously the respective draft law, the Luxembourg Parliament confirmed the strong political cross-party and national commitment to the SpaceResources.lu initiative," he said.

The new law does not apply to satellite communications, orbital positions or the use of frequency bands.

Luxembourg authorities are already supporting the research and development projects of a number of leading players in the space mining industry that have set up their European operations in Luxembourg.

(Roxana Mironescu and Heledd Pritchard roxana.mironescu@wort.lu, +325 49 93 748, heledd.pritchard@wort.lu, +352 49 93 459)