"Space War"

[Ray Dillinger]

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