National Competent Authority
The public authority that authorises and supervises space activities; under the EU Space Act proposal (COM(2025) 335) each Member State would designate one (Art. 28).
National space laws name the authority that grants space authorisations — often a minister. Examples: France, the minister responsible for space, with CNES checking technical conformity (Décret 2009-643); Luxembourg, the minister responsible for space (Law of 15 December 2020, Art. 5); Austria, the federal minister (Weltraumgesetz § 3); the Netherlands, the Minister of Economic Affairs and Climate Policy (Wet ruimtevaartactiviteiten, Art. 1 and 3). Germany has no general space act.
Under the EU Space Act proposal (COM(2025) 335, not in force) Each Member State would designate or establish a public authority as competent authority, responsible for the authorisation and supervision of Union space operators and for market surveillance to safeguard the use of space-based data (Art. 28(1)), with the necessary independence, expertise and resources (Art. 28(2)). Tasks and powers:
- Supervision of Union space operators (Art. 29)
- Investigatory powers, e.g. requiring data and documents and access to premises (Art. 30(3))
- Corrective powers, e.g. warnings and orders to remedy shortcomings (Art. 30(5))
- Sanctioning powers: fines, temporary suspension or withdrawal of an authorisation (Art. 30(6))
- Informing the Agency of authorised operators for URSO (Art. 7(7))
- Coordination with the NIS2 authorities (Art. 30(2))
Operator side Applications go to the competent authority of the Member State of establishment and, where the operator operates or launches elsewhere in the Union, also to that Member State's authority (Art. 6(3), 7(1)).