72: Air and Space Law with Attorney Rebekah Rounds

The Outer Space Treaty is vague. Rebekah believes there's a way to encourage the international community and develop education to balance opportunities for everyone to use and benefit from the resources space can provide.

We talk Space Force, NASA, private space companies, international and domestic treaties and everything in between. When it comes to space law and policy, sometimes the answers can be as interesting as the questions. So let's dive in and discuss!

"I think we need to be more responsible about space. I think we need to look at space as this avenue for uniting rather than dividing. In some ways, I'm a real optimist." -Rebekah Rounds on Casual Space Podcast

Valuable resources Rebekah mentions on the show:

• A certificate program for non-lawyers (ideal for CEOs and executives of space start-up companies) at The University of Mississippi https://law.olemiss.edu/academics-programs/llm/
• The American Bar Association https://www.americanbar.org/groups/air_space/divisions/divisions/
• The New Space Conference https://spacefrontier.org/newspace2020/

About Rebekah:

Rebekah Rounds is a Maryland and California-licensed attorney whose private practice focuses on corporate law, start-ups related to emerging technologies and industries, telecommunications, and domestic and international space law and policy.

Before graduating with her J.D. from Mississippi College School of Law in 2014, Rebekah served as a legal fellow for the Chairman of the Space Subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives, Rep. Steven Palazzo. Under Chairman Palazzo, Rebekah researched international and domestic space law, space law issues related to Federal Acquisition Regulations and Space Act Agreements, and various legal issues pertaining to NASA Reauthorization, commercial space policy, and liability and indemnity regimes for private space launch actors.In 2017 Rebekah published her paper "The Intersection of U.S. Space Policy Goals and National Security Needs: An Argument for a Regulatory Regime Oversight Commission That Balances Space-Related Policy Interests" in the Journal of Space Law. In 2018 she graduated with her LL.M. in Air and Space Law from the University of Mississippi.

Rebekah believes that the future of space activity relies on a well-established education pipeline.