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Article: Law
- Article from:
- Space Sciences
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CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 2002 The Gale Group Inc. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Law
The birth of the Space Age in the late 1950s opened a new frontier for exploration. It also opened a new arena for law, since existing international laws and treaties did not cover launches or other activities in space. Given the backdrop of the Cold War, there was a concern by some that space could become a new battlefield between the United States and the Soviet Union. In 1959, in an effort to keep space free of conflict, the United Nations established the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (COPUOS), which was charged with, among other things, considering the legal problems that could stem from space travel. COPUOS, through its legal subcommittee, led to the development ...