law without being bound by a premature, unqualified proposition whose consequences were unforeseeable. Hancock did not oppose banning satellites designed for “weapons purposes” as long as the language clearly prohibited any satellites that interfered with any terrestrial activity.[1]
Hancock was not alone in the Air Force in expressing reservations about Becker’s proposed proclamation. However, it is not clear that the concerns of the Air Doctrine Branch, which were raised with the director of plans, were made known outside the Air Force.[2] In response to Becker’s 3 December draft memorandum for the secretary of state, the DOD assistant general counsel for international affairs, Monroe Leigh, wrote to Becker. Leigh stated that “the proposed proclamation is not as guarded as it should be in order to take care of the interests of various Department of Defense programs.” Leigh felt that language excluding objects or vehicles “designed or equipped for weapons purposes” should be revised to prohibit vehicles “intended to inflict injury or damage.” Since the US satellite programs were in large part funded by the military, Leigh noted that without his revision Becker’s language would create “an almost irrebuttable presumption” that the projects were being carried out for “weapons purposes.” Leigh opposed using the law of the high seas as an analogy for developing the law of outer space. Becker included Hancock’s IGY proposal and removed the “designed for weapons purposes” language from the draft proclamation.[3] Ironically, just before the US issued the proclamation, East Germany protested the orbiting of US military reconnaissance satellites that were not IGY affiliated. The proclamation was never issued.[4]
The Air Force position and now the US position as established by the ACC and its Legal Division-that ICAO consideration of outer space was premature-remained constant throughout 1958. Eventually, the forum for discussion of outer space issues shifted from the ICAO to the UN. As a result, and in large part due to strong Air Force urging, the United States had successfully deflected ICAO discussion of the sovereignty issue. As early as 1959, the UN first considered and identified the question of the definition of outer space as a legal problem. In 1959, in accord with US policy, the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS) concluded that a determination of precise limits for
- ↑ Hancock to Becker, memorandum, subject: United States Declaration on NonInterfering Space Objects, 1 December 1958.
- ↑ History, Directorate of Plans, Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Programs, HQ USAF, vol. 17, 1 July-31 December 1958, 168. (Hereafter History, DCS/Plans and Programs.)
- ↑ Monroe Leigh to Becker, memorandum, subject: Legal Status of Non-Interfering Objects, 11 December 1958.
- ↑ By late 1958, the position advocated by the US Air Force of not encouraging the passage of international conventions was more in accord with the position advocated by the USSR than with the US Department of State presumably because both the Air Force and the USSR were more interested in allowing technology to develop.
