Legality of weapons in space.?
Are only nukes not allowed in space or all weapons. I know on some soviet ships had pistols on board.
Are only nukes not allowed in space or all weapons. I know on some soviet ships had pistols on board.
Spaceman
Given humanity's well-known propensity for conflict, if humans ever establish a large-scale permanent presence in space, you may be sure that there will eventually be war in space, possibly up to and including the use of nuclear weapons. The Outer Space Treaty or any other legality won't matter to anybody at all.
quantumclaustrophobe
Conventional weapons weren't specified in the treaty. And, in fact - in addition to the Russians bring up guns on their Soyuz craft - they also armed a Salyut space station with a cannon. (To keep the pesky Americans at bay...). They even fired it once - but the violence of the shot to the space station itself was so great, they never tested it again. And, the Americans left them alone...
Mike1942f
Actually, one craft had an externally mounted recoilless rifle that was fired in space - when nobody was on board. There are no laws about weapons - nuclear ban is a treaty.
Brigalow Bloke
The cosmonauts had pistols because they once landed on the ground in bear and wolf country. In 1965 veteran cosmonaut Alexey Leonov came down hundreds of miles from where it was planned and he made sure all later cosmonauts had a weapon.
?
Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty specifically prohibits the emplacement of nuclear or other weapons of mass destruction in orbit or on celestial bodies, but not conventional ones. The Soviets carried pistols in case they landed off course in the Siberian wilderness and had to fend off timber wolves.