5 ms·

They could, and then it would be Taiwan or India's problem.

• duck 9y ago
  Until one of their micro satellites hits one from the USA.
  • zAy0LfpBZLC8mAC 9y ago
    ... in which case India or Taiwan would on the hook for it, if found out.
  • ben_w 9y ago
    If I understand correctly (and that’s a big if given I’m not any kind of lawyer, never mind an international treaty specialist) the country which allowed the launch is responsible for the damages in situations like that. So no, it’s still their problem.
    • cortesoft 9y ago
      Only if the country has agreed to join that international treaty.
      • gruez 9y ago
        That's a great way to get your satellites "accidentally" hit in retaliation
  • pjg 9y ago
    China is the source of largest amount of space debris (as a result of testing their anti-satellite weapon). How will the US (or any other country ) know the country of origin of the space debris ?
    • rtkwe 9y ago
      The US (and presumably other countries like Russia and China) has a pretty robust tracking network that keeps track of pretty much everything in orbit above a certain size. With that info and when the strike actually happened it's pretty easy to backtrack to determine the possible culprits. http://www.stratcom.mil/Media/Factsheets/Factsheet-View/Article/976414/usstratcom-space-control-and-space-surveillance/ http://www.stratcom.mil/Media/Factsheets/Factsheet-View/Arti...
  • walrus01 9y ago
    The US has famously polluted elliptical orbits and low earth orbit with test garbage for 60 years: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_West_Ford https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_West_Ford http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/westford.htm http://space.skyrocket.de/doc_sdat/westford.htm