Space lawyers are expected to become a lot busier as the race to get passengers into orbit heats up.

Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic, one of three companies in the running, is weeks away from its first trip.

He will be on-board within months and not long after that, other people will be going up as tourists.

Space lawyer Maria Pozza told Tim Dower she and her colleagues will be dealing with things like travel insurance, including applications and claims.

"We've got health and safety issues that we might have to consider as well, and also competition between other operators."

She said space law is a complex area and there are a lot of challenges because it covers travel insurance, licences to launch, health and safety issues, and competition between operators.

"Of course, something that is really interesting is , when you have tourists on-board, like a ship, which law will apply to them."