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Article History

Received: 12 October 2025

Accepted: 13 February 2026

First Online: 17 March 2026

Declarations

:

: The authors hereby declare that there has been no funding in connection with this article and that there is no conflict or competing interests.

: This article does not contain any studies with human or animal subjects performed by any of the authors.

: The article concludes that contracts—tailored to scope, operations, and risk allocation—are essential to bridge existing legal gaps, including in the areas of intellectual property, data integrity, and regulatory requirements for space-based R&D, thereby providing continuity and legal certainty for multinational collaborations under the current framework and in preparation for the transition to the post-ISS era.