Legality of weapons in space.?

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.

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...

Hand weapons are not illegal.

Weapons of Mass Destruction are not illegal, but they ar controlled through inmternational cooperation

Both Russia and Americas have experiemtnw with space weapons (liek Reagans Star wars projects), and there are many rumors of Russian, American AND CHINESE having weapons there now.

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.

With Americans in space, I am surprised that weapons are not compulsory.

Cheers!

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.