On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, Jim Choate wrote:
On Mon, 6 Aug 2001, Ray Dillinger wrote:
Second, it pretty much means the US is going to have to withdraw from the space treaty of 1965, which bans space weapons. This latter is actually more interesting to me, because that treaty also bans national claims of sovereignty over off-earth property (or else Neil Armstrong would have been saying the ancient incantation, "we claim this new land in the name of...." when he planted that American flag on the moon in '69) and, more importantly, private claims of ownership on off-earth property.
He did do that you silly goose. He claimed it in the name of the US for 'All mankind'...
Check the web.
I did, actually. Turns out I got the year wrong, it was 1967 not 1965. But the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, to which the US is a signatory, has a big fat anti-sovereignty clause, stating that no nation can claim off-earth territory. Discussion can be found at http://www.spacepolicy.org/page_mw0799.html Although I found this guy far too optimistic about the role of government, I believe he has his facts straight regarding the treaty. Bear