-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- A story in the 3/14/94 issue of _Aviation Week_ reports that Hughes and Martin Marietta have satisfied the State Department and will now be able to launch the Optus B3 comsat. All the quotes below are from the article; it didn't have any detail on the cryptostuff. State had held up the launch because the Optus B3 payload included a "sensitive decryption chip". The USG made trade with China subject to the Missile Technology Control Regime (MTCR) after China was suspected of selling missiles to Pakistan. Hughes agreed to remove the chip, which "guards the satellite's steering commands"; once removed, State lifted the export restriction. "By removing the chip, authority for approving the launch was shifted to the Commerce Dept. from an interagency review commission headed by the State Dept. that had far less leeway to act." I never knew that encryption fell under MTCR in addition to ITAR. Presumably any crypto hardware or software which can be used to protect missile or satellite telemetry or commanding can be restricted. If anyone has more details on the MTCR and its application, I'd love to hear it. - -Paul Robichaux - -- Paul Robichaux, KD4JZG | Out the 10Base-T port, through the router, perobich@ingr.com | over the leased line, off the bridge, past Intergraph Federal Systems | the firewall... nothing but net. Of course I don't speak for Intergraph. -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE----- Version: 2.3a iQCVAgUBLamroCA78To+806NAQEK0wP/SD8692ZaMl71c57dSKAG7vmYVcyvIJi5 CNuWb4u3kL7WlfEtzrZ42Dfx4avgyzcjyoIyBDE5r+7n/nSMnbBGZGYR2OyTBQ5b GaK8RrrdJQoKujEvzR8i+XhtBin2doK5hzBHTY2VpYIexMH34MLZeYNST4nA7ek9 5EGWhbZ5mxw= =avDx -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----