Background and Overview. Any introduction of weaponry into space
             territories must take into consideration the controlling national and
             international laws. According to Georg Schwarzenberger and Bin Cheng
             (2004), the evolution of space law can be traced to President Dwight D.
             Eisenhower's introduction of the concept into the United Nations in 1957 as
             an overall part of disarmament negotiations. After the successful
             launchings of the Soviet satellite Sputnik 1 in 1957, followed by the U.S.
             satellite Explorer 1 in 1958, both the United States and the Soviet Union
             assumed an active role in the development of international space policy.
             At this time, it was established that traditional laws of sovereignty that
             allow any nation to claim for itself uninhabited and uncivilized lands were
             not viable concepts for space territories; further, it was determined that
             individual nationals should not be allowed to extend the boundaries of
             their dominion indefinitely into the space regions above them; however, a
             claim of sovereignty has already been made by certain equatorial states
             over portions of the geostationary orbit, some 22,000 miles above the Earth
             In 1959, the path for peaceful exploration of space was established
             through a permanent Outer Space Committee formed for the purpose of
             maintaining the United Nations Charter and other international law in
             space. The Nuclear Test Ban Treaty was signed in 1963, followed by an
             Outer Space Committee resolution designed to prohibit nuclear weapons
             testing in space. Later in 1963, the United Nations General Assembly
             adopted the Declaration of Legal Principles Governing the Activities of
             States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space as one of the first
             efforts by the international community to set up a legal regime for outer
             space; however, this Declaration did not specifically recognize the
             military possibilities of outer space (Jas...