That Outer Space Treaty is really showing its age, as is shown in this case.
NASA, which does most of the work on the ISS, had a bum battery. The Russians didn't want it; there weren't other customers in LEO. They can't just throw that out the airlock to contribute to Kessler. Blasting it to graveyard-orbit takes too much delta-V, let alone beyond. So they pitched it downward. To Alejandro Otero's house. And through it.
You'd think the American management of ISS would take the blame for it, but you're not thinking like a stinking lawyer. By treaty / international-law, Japan owns it. Say what? - you ask; because they'd launched it from this Earth, Zimmerman is (sort of) saying.
So goes the Literalism theory, anyway. It is hardly original-intent. Imagine if Honda be liable for a corroded part in a twelve-year-old car bought from a used-car lot... or Boeing liable for United's mechanics. Nah: the last launcher of this hottest of Sudamerican tuber was... us.
NASA are acting as if they know this reading of the Treaty won't fly in Japanese court. NASA - "we" - have been blowing Otero off.
No comments:
Post a Comment