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The Space Age: Legal And Policy Problems, Carl T. Curtis

University of Richmond Law Review

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 …