Military hardware has orbited Earth for decades, but no actual weapons have ever been deployed in space. That may change soon and it may launch a major space race
Posted 10.28.2005 at 1:00 am
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Is it legal to weaponize Space?
Although space is not yet weaponized, it is most definitely militarized. Satellites are routinely used
for military communication, navigation, spying and weather forecasting. Taking the military presence
in space to the next level-with active weaponry-is not quite the legal quagmire you´d think it would be. The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 prohibits nations from placing nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction in space, but there are no international laws against other types of space weapons.
Dawn Stover is Popular Science's science editor.
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