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Old December 16th 16, 10:28 PM posted to sci.space.history
David Spain
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Default The Space Race was about Power Projection - Miles O'Brien

On 12/16/2016 1:35 PM, David Spain wrote:
Your guess is mistaken. And the later is true. A country may, as a
courtesy, inform other countries of a test, but when a test does not
involve their airspace there is no requirement. BTW a country is free to
orbit anything in space regardless of what territory it crosses. When
North Korea does this we can rant, fume, bloviate all we want but they
are not doing anything any other country or private corporation has not
already done.


A clarification:
Treaty obligations notwithstanding. Obviously a country under treaty
obligations that prevent orbiting a nuclear weapon would not do so.
Not sure North Korea is a signatory to such a treaty. I would have to
check, otherwise what I've written is true. I believe the USA is a
signatory to such a treaty arrangement. And the reason is because there
are far more disadvantages to an orbital nuclear weapon platform than
advantages. Hence nothing important to national security was given up in
agreeing to such a treat, with the distinct advantage that potential
adversaries have agreed to the same treaty.

Dave