Page:The Air Force Role In Developing International Outer Space Law (Terrill, 1999).djvu/58

This page needs to be proofread.

that DOD would remain in charge of military space projects even if a new space agency was created.[1] In response, the services while publicly expressing acceptance of the space-for-peace policy also supported efforts to establish US control of outer space, at least, until international arrangements guaranteed the commitment of all other nations to the same space-for-peace policy, As Lee Bowen observes:

In seeking to adjust to the President’s somewhat extreme position and their obligations to safeguard the defense of the United States, the military did not criticize the space-for-peace policy but sought rather to determine for themselves how effective international space law was likely to be, how it could curtail their own activities, and how far they should go in presenting a case for military space projects.[2]

By the spring of 1958, because of the continuing disquietude within the military with the space-for-peace policy. Secretary McElroy requested that the National Security Council (NSC) formulate a national policy on outer space to assuage the restiveness of the US armed forces regarding their responsibilities in outer space. After reiterating “support” for the space for-peace policy, the military services, in their March 1958 responses to the NSC, argued against emasculating military space programs.[3] The NSC’s efforts to formulate a US policy for outer space moved faster than the Air Force sponsored Project RAND study (which was initially for Air Force eyes only) of the legal implications of the proposed NSC policy. The Air Doctrine Branch, Deputy Chief of Staff (DCS) for Plans and Programs, which had been coordinating on the NSC plan, forwarded the Air Staff position to the Joint Chiefs of Staff (JCS). The JCS adopted the Air Staff position and in turn recommended that the NSC modify its proposal by essentially withholding judgment until further study could be completed.[4] However, on 18 August 1958, President Eisenhower signed NSC 5814/1 entitled “Preliminary US Policy on Space,” which described in detail the purpose and principles for US civilian and military space programs.[fn 1] The NSC policy that Eisenhower adopted generally downplayed the role of the military and


  1. Specifically, NSC 5814/1 provided that the US continue its IGY experiments, recognize the UN’s interest in space, enter into bilateral agreements with other nations to regulate space activities, invite other nations to participate reciprocally in scientific projects, propose projects for multilateral participation, and assist free world nations on their space projects.

  1. The birth of a civilian space agency (eventually named the National Aeronautics and Space Administration) was troublesome to the military services. Initially, the services were concerned that such an agency would control even military space operations and later, after Eisenhower put that concern to rest, the services were apprehensive about the budgetary implications of such an agency.
  2. Lee Bowen, “An Air Force History of Space Activities 1945-1959” (Washington, D.C.: USAF Historical Division Liaison Office, August 1964), 185.
  3. Ibid.
  4. History, Directorate of Plans, Deputy Chief of Staff, Plans and Programs, HQ USAF, vol. 17, 1 July-31 December 1958, 167. Hereafter History, DCS/Plans & Programs.

44