[AR] Re: The Atlantic: Elon Musk and SpaceX Want to Fly From NYC to Shanghai in 39 Minutes
- From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2017 13:59:00 -0400 (EDT)
On Thu, 12 Oct 2017, William Claybaugh wrote:
This is a "settled" issue in international law: a reason the Eisenhower
Administration prevented the launching of an American satellite in 1956
was so the Soviets would do it first and the US failure to protest it as
a violation of airspace would then settle the question...or so a memo
from the time claims.
Reference? The historical studies I've seen (e.g. Bille & Lishock, "The
First Space Race") found no indication of that. Setting a precedent for
right of peaceful overflight was definitely considered important (at a
very high level -- the folks doing the work weren't told about that), but
last I heard, it appeared that the idea that the Soviets might set that
precedent was just never taken seriously.
Henry
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