Near-Earth Objects (NEOs)\u2014asteroids and comets that orbit the Sun near the Earth\u2014pose serious threats to our planet. Approximately 1,000 discovered NEOs that are similar to the Chicxulub Impactor responsible for the Cretaceous\u2013Paleogene Extinction Event roughly sixty-six million years ago are capable of causing regional or global devastation. Over 24,000 discovered NEOs that are similar to the Chelyabinsk Meteor\u2014which impacted Russia in February 2013, damaged over 7,200 buildings, and injured more than 1,600 people\u2014are capable of causing severe local or regional harm. And, in only the last five years, the number of discovered NEOs has nearly doubled.<\/p>\n
One potential strategy to prevent an NEO\u2013Earth impact is to change the NEO\u2019s orbit. A state acting in good faith launches a spacecraft (called a gravity tractor) that orbits near the NEO in such a way that it pulls the NEO toward the spacecraft, gradually modifying the NEO\u2019s orbit so that the NEO does not impact Earth. But the spacecraft\u2019s mid-mission failure is possible. If the spacecraft is able to modify the NEO\u2019s orbit only par-tially, then the NEO will still impact Earth, but it will impact a different state than if the spacecraft had done nothing. Worse yet, a state may deploy a gravity tractor in bad faith, hoping to deliberately redirect the NEO so that it impacts a different, particular state.<\/p>\n
This Note analyzes whether, in these two scenarios, the redirecting state\u2014that is, the state that launches and operates the gravity tractor\u2014is liable to the state that the NEO impacts. Looking through the lens of international law, specifically the Liability Convention, the Outer Space Treaty, and the U.N. Charter, this Note concludes that a redirecting state that acts in good faith is liable to the impacted state under the Liability Convention and the U.N. Charter but not under the Outer Space Treaty. This Note then concludes that a redirecting state that acts in bad faith is liable to the impacted state under all three instruments.<\/p>\n