The Space Age: Legal and Policy Problems

Public realization that the Space Age was at hand came with the launching of Sputnik on October 4, 1957. A second and much larger Soviet earth satellite, containing a dog, was launched on Novem- ber 3, 1957. This startling emergence of Soviet space science and technology had grave implications for the security of the free world, be- cause it demonstrated that the U.S.S.R. possessed much of the technology required to explore and control space. Moreover, through the Sputnik launchings, the Soviet Union revealed a capacity to launch intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Future methods of maintaining peace or waging war would be greatly altered by man's newly found ability to make use of space.