For centuries, maritime salvage law has governed abandoned vessels and treasure lost in international waters. Under traditional admiralty law, anyone who recovers a derelict ship or cargo on the high seas can claim a reward or even ownership if the original owner abandons their rights. When human spaceflight began, many legal theorists assumed that similar rules would apply to derelict satellites, spent rocket boosters, and lunar artifacts.
However, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty radically departed from maritime precedent. Article VIII of the treaty explicitly establishes that launching states retain jurisdiction, control, and absolute ownership over objects launched into outer space, as well as their component parts, regardless of where they land or how long they have been inactive. This means there is no legal concept of abandonment in space law.
If a private company or rival nation recovers an old Soviet satellite or an Apollo lander element, they cannot claim salvage rights or legal ownership under current international law. Furthermore, Article VII and the 1972 Space Liability Convention make the original launching state strictly liable for any damage caused by their space objects. This creates a strange legal dilemma: while maritime law incentivizes private salvors to clean up shipwrecks and recover property, space law actively deters private space junk removal companies because touching or moving another nation's orbital debris constitutes an illegal seizure of foreign sovereign property without explicit prior authorization.