Who Legally Owns the Land When SpaceX Builds a City on the Moon?

Right now, nobody does. Just over a year ago, Elon Musk called the Moon "a distraction." On February 8, 2026, he reversed course: SpaceX will now prioritize a lunar city, targeting an uncrewed Starship landing as early as 2027 and a self-sustaining settlement within a decade. Blue Origin has paused its tourism flights to compete for Artemis Moon contracts. China is building an international lunar research station.

The race to the Moon is real. But the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which bars nations from claiming sovereignty over celestial bodies, says nothing about private property rights. That legal vacuum was academic for decades. It won't be for much longer.

The Space Settlement Institute has spent years developing the answer: Land Claims Recognition legislation that would allow established, permanent settlements to claim and resell the territory around their bases, all without renegotiating the treaty.

When the Institute first proposed this framework and defended it in the Journal of Air Law & Commerce, it was theoretical. Today, with SpaceX targeting an uncrewed lunar landing by early 2027, it is anything but.

SpaceX has demonstrated that a single company can fund pioneering transportation through cross-subsidy and sheer will. That answers a question many doubted could be answered. But it answers only the first question.

An outpost is not a civilization. A self-sustaining community of thousands needs a local economy: mortgages, land sales, capital for businesses that don't yet exist. The Moon produces nothing worth shipping back to Earth. Its most valuable asset is the land itself, and right now, no one can legally own it.

Property rights are what turn an outpost into a civilization. They create economic incentives that outlast any single founder's fortune and attract the hundreds of companies a real settlement needs.

The Outer Space Treaty bars national sovereignty over celestial bodies, so the U.S. government can't own lunar land to grant. But civil law offers a well-established alternative. Under the "use and occupation" principle, property rights arise from productive use of land, independent of sovereign ownership. This framework, used in countries like France, can establish legitimate claims in space without violating any treaty.

The Space Settlement Prize Act would put this principle into U.S. law. Congress should act now, before territorial disputes arise and while American leadership can still shape the rules.