Space exploration offers a profound and evolving viewpoint on our place among the stars: Is our home planet unique? Can human civilization extend beyond it? What else is out there in this vast, tremendous universe?

More tangibly, the likes of GPS navigation and accurate weather forecasting only became possible with orbital satellites. And without the space vertical’s intersectoral synergies, we wouldn’t have seen such rapid progress in everything from lightweight materials to implantable heart monitors, to cancer therapy and water purification systems.

In the near future, innovations driven by space technology, a major one being miniaturization, shall pay dividends in energy storage and computing and robotics. But stay tuned to my broadcasting frequency, because upcoming years in the space tech story could well be as slow and bumpy as the fabric of Einsteinian space-time around a supermassive quasar.

The year is 2018, yet our laws governing all aspects of space discovery date all the way back to The Outer Space Treaty of 1967. The world was a different place at that time — The Vietnam War and Civil Rights Protests dominated headlines whilst Beatlemania swept the United States. Meanwhile, physicists at CERN were puzzling over matter-antimatter asymmetry and Neil Armstrong could only dream of making his giant leap for mankind.

The Outer Space Treaty, or officially the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, was written up by the United Nations primarily to prevent a planetary system repeat of the European colonization. One of the agreements in the treaty states how every State is responsible for all rockets and other extra-atmospheric objects hailing from the State, notwithstanding whether they belong to the government, a corporation, or an individual citizen.

And here lies the problem.

This treaty was signed into being at a time when space tourism, commercial satellites, and a sports car in solar orbit were mere figments of quixotic science fiction.

As a result of this dusty, half-century-old document, here in the U.S. our federal government is held responsible by the rest of the world for whatever may get sent upward. This is no mean feat, and in fact the only feasible way for our government to keep tabs on all lift-offs from American soil is to issue permits, a symbol of snail-paced bureaucratic nightmares. Interestingly, the granter of these permits is not NASA but rather the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). Furthermore, the time delay between applying for such a permit and receiving one is often several months: not too much of a problem back in the day when large shuttles took years to build.

But now, it’s much more of a problem for the many lithe space tech startups nowadays which must quickly demonstrate proof-of-concept or face running dry on funding.

In March of this year, the FCC accused a stealth startup of unauthorized satellite deployment. The accused party, Swarm Technologies, planned on putting four tiny satellites into orbit to trial the communications system it is developing. However, the small dimensions means they can’t be monitored conventionally and so the FCC judged it would be unsafe for these satellites to be in orbit. It subsequently came to light that Swarm had apparently ignored its permit rejection and deployed anyway.

And who could blame them?

Swarm had poured countless hours and huge capital expenditure into the design and manufacture of these satellites by the time the FCC stated their ruling. The current time span for permit issuance forces space startups into the situation where they must wait on tenterhooks for official paperwork while simultaneously working toward launch, because if one were to put off securing a launch date until the FCC seal of approval they’d likely find themselves bankrupted on terra firma.

How Swarm will be dealt with for its space-faring violation remains to be seen, and this case will likely set a precedent. In the meantime, venture capital investors are viewing the space (pun intended), once dubbed it the final frontier of venture, with noticeable nervousness.

It’s a real tragedy since this is stymying innovation in arguably the most inspiring of endeavors. Deceleration in capital flow is delaying development in a plethora of fascinating and futuristic areas, including global satellite internet, asteroid mining, lunar elevators, and who knows what else. Indeed, new and amazing advances which would better the quality of life for all and embolden humanity’s view of the universe are sadly and frustratingly being put on hold, and all for the sake of abiding by an outdated settlement.

As it stands, investors are treating the FCC’s bureaucratic hoops as just another factor to consider when evaluating a fledgling company. However, the regulatory elephant is still in the room and the space tech ecosystem is struggling to contort itself without being trampled.

In spite of the pressing need for a solution to the issue, none are forthcoming. The Outer Space Treaty, strongly influenced by the mindset of the Cold War, has never been amended and given it includes one-hundred and seven countries, an overhaul would take years to enact. In place of this, the U.S. is currently writing up the so-called American Space Renaissance Act, which would serve to facilitate commercial space projects. Nonetheless, critics point out the Act does little to stitch up the mess of complicated problems originating from the Treaty. For example, a competing nation such as Russia or China could always veto any proposed action of a U.S. company for any of a multitude of tenuous reasons.

In this way multimillion-dollar undertakings could be derailed with zero notice, leaving startups and their investors shortchanged. Venture capitalists invest very sparingly, giving only one percent of startups they screen their financial backing, hence in the face of regulatory uncertainty few are willing to put their heads on the block and shoot for the moon with space tech.

The space technology sector is one with astronomical potential and conundrums on an equivalent scale. Legal lines will continue to be stretched and blurred as space innovation outpaces the rules drawn up to contain it. And for the foreseeable future, government agencies scramble to track an overwhelming number of private satellites as the Outer Space Treaty requires. The biggest losers are the founders of the would-be transformative startups hampered by outdated red tape, but society as a whole is also losing out tremendously.

As things are, satellite broadband and space tourism may remain figments of our imagination for many years to come. If our generation is to contribute its rung to the human ladder reaching for the stars, perhaps we should start with thoughtful, founder-friendly policy.

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Outdated Policy is Stifling Space Tech Advancement was originally published in Comet Labs on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.