This plan, if put into effect, would contain and reduce the nuclear threat.

It would reverse the upward spiral of destructive capability which, if unchecked, could by 1966 be double what it is today.

It would quickly reverse the trend toward diffusion of nuclear weapons capability to additional nations.

It would put into effect measures to reduce the risk of war by accident, miscalculation, or surprise attack.

It would ensure that general and complete disarmament is matched by the strengthening of the world's institutions for keeping the peace, else there could be no safety in general disarmament.

At Geneva, we seek the widest possible area of agreement on a general disarmament program. Our goal, of course, is agreement upon the entire process, but we recognize that this will take time. We would hope, therefore, that in addition to early action in the fields of the four danger areas I mentioned earlier, we and the Soviet Union could agree upon balanced measures that could start the disarmament process while we continue negotiations on some of the more difficult problems that arise in connection with the later phases of a general disarmament program.

We continue to hope for a treaty banning nuclear weapons tests. President Kennedy has said that he has had no greater disappointment since he assumed office than the failure to achieve a test ban agreement. Such an agreement inevitably would improve the prospects for success in broader disarmament efforts. It would also end one significant element in the arms race and help to prevent the spreading of nuclear weapons among more and more nations.

The Soviet resumption of nuclear weapons tests last fall left the United States with no option but to resume testing. The decision was undertaken only after the most soul-searching examination, for the President views with great concern the further acceleration of the competition, in developing newer and more destructive weapons. However, in the absence of a safeguarded agreement, we could not hold back further in the face of unacceptable military risks for the United States and the entire free world.

The United States will not abandon its quest for a safeguarded agreement which will put an end to nuclear weapons testing for all time. Under the pressure of world opinion and with an awakening to the need for responsible statesmanship, we hope the Soviet Union will turn from its present negative posture and agree to resume negotiations for an effective test ban agreement.

We are preparing to go up and down the range of negotiation, seeking agreement wherever possible. And we are determined to make only those proposals which we ourselves are prepared to live with. It is important that these negotiations be conducted in good faith and not as propaganda moves.

Report of the Legal Subcommittee to the General Assembly Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, June 20, 1962 1 [Extracts]

INTRODUCTION

1. The Legal Sub-Committee, established by the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space at its ninth meeting on 29 March 1962, was convened at the European Office of the United Nations in Geneva on 28 May and concluded its work on 20 June 1962.

2. The Sub-Committee held fifteen meetings, the Summary Records of which have been circulated as documents A/AC.105/C.2/SR.1SR.15.2

3. A list of the representatives of States members of the Sub-Committee attending the session, of the representatives of organizations invited by the Sub-Committee to participate as observers in its proceedings and of the secretariat of the Sub-Committee is given in the Annex to the present report.3

4. The session was opened by Mr. Haseganu (Romania), Vice-Chairman of the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

5. Mr. Manfred Lachs (Poland) was unanimously elected Chairman of the Sub-Committee on the nomination by Mr. Kenneth Bailey (Australia) which was seconded by Mr. Krishna Rao (India).

6. The Sub-Committee agreed at its first meeting to invite the International Telecommunication Union (ITU), the United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), the World Meteorological Organization (WMO), the World Health Organization (WHO), and the Committee on Space Research of the International Council of Scientific Unions (COŜPAR) to participate in its work as observers.

7. By resolution 1721A (XVI) the General Assembly invited the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space to study and report on the legal problems which might arise from the exploration and use of outer space. At the end of its session in March 1962 the Committee, after reporting that many specific proposals and suggestions concerning legal studies had been made by its members, established the Legal Sub-Committee for a detailed study of these problems and in accordance with the responsibilities placed on the Committee by General Assembly resolutions 1472 (XIV)5 and and 1721 (XVI). In ac cordance with these terms of reference the Legal Sub-Committee considered the general principles and legal problems arising from the exploration and use of outer space.

6

8. In conducting its work, the Sub-Committee followed the agreement reached in the Committee and stated by its Chairman on 19 March (A/AC.105/PV.2) in the following terms: "It has been agreed among the members of the Committee that it will be the aim of all members of the Committee and its Sub-Committees to conduct the

Committee's work in such a way that the Committee will be able to reach agreement in its work without need for voting."

9. The representatives of the following States took part in the discussion: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Austria, Belgium, Brazil, Bulgaria, Canada, Czechoslovakia, France, Hungary, India, Iran, Italy, Japan, Lebanon, Mexico, Mongolia, Morocco, Poland, Romania, Sierra Leone, Sweden, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, United Arab Republic, United Kingdom, and the United States of America. A statement was also made by the observer from the International Telecommunication Union.

10. In response to a request by the representative of India, the Secretariat submitted to the Sub-Committee a document entitled "Conventions and International Agreements on Rescue of and Assistance to Aircraft and Vessels in Distress and their Personnel" (A/ AC.105/C.2/2), which contained the relevant provisions of these Conventions and International Agreements, together with an analytical summary of the main points covered by them.

II. PROPOSALS SUBMITTED FOR CONSIDERATION BY THE SUB-COMMITTEE 11. The Soviet Union and the United States submitted the following proposals in respect of substantive work of the Sub-Committee. 12. India submitted the following proposal (A/AC.105/C.2/L.5 and Corr. 1) suggesting draft conclusions that the Sub-Committee might adopt on the basis of the views expressed by its members.

"1. The Sub-Committee will give further consideration at its subsequent sessions to the principles that should govern the activities of States in the exploration and use of outer space, taking into account proposals already made; and in this connexion members of the Sub-Committee are requested to submit any additional proposals at least one month before the next session of the SubCommittee.

"2. The Sub-Committee endorses the principle that States shall render all possible assistance to astronauts who have met with accidents or have made emergency landings and shall return space vehicles and personnel to the launching State.

"3. The Sub-Committee endorses the principle that States shall be liable internationally for personal injury, loss of life or property damage caused by space vehicles which they have launched.

"4. The Sub-Committee decides to set up a working party of the Sub-Committee to go into the question of what further measures should be adopted to implement the principles stated in paragraphs 2 and 3.

"5. The Sub-Committee decides to include in its report a provisional list of additional subjects which may be taken up by the Sub-Committee at its subsequent sessions."

8 Not printed.

The two Soviet draft resolutions and the two American draft resolutions, with some minor changes from the version here omitted, are printed in an annex to the Report of the Committee on the Peaceful Use of Outer Space, Sept. 27, 1962, post, pp. 349-353.

13. The representative of Canada made the following assessment as a basis for the Sub-Committee's conclusion (A/AC.105/C.2/ SR.13):

1. No statement has been made in the Committee or in our consultations with other delegates which would suggest opposition to the idea of requesting a working group to prepare a draft international agreement dealing with liability for space vehicle accidents. Indeed the Committee has entirely endorsed action along

these lines.

2. The Committee also agreed that the subject of the question of general principles be regarded as an important matter but that a more detailed consideration of this subject may be left until a later meeting.

3. The one subject on which there has not been agreement is the subject as to how best the question of assistance and return should be handled. The difference in approach regarding this question raises in turn the important issue as to whether this difference in approach should be of such a widespread character as to prevent useful progress being made in regard to a separate question; namely, the question of liability for space vehicle accidents.

III. OTHER LEGAL PROBLEMS SUGGESTED FOR FUTURE STUDY

14. Some representatives suggested that the Sub-Committee should examine at a later stage other legal problems arising from the exploration and use of outer space, including consideration of the list of such problems. These problems included: (1) demarcation between outer space and atmospheric space; (2) jurisdiction and law applicable to men in outer space and manned stations on celestial bodies; (3) measures to prevent interference with space projects due to scientific experiments or other space activities; (4) prevention of contamination of or from outer space and celestial bodies; (5) control over the launching and orbits of spacecraft and artificial ́satellites; (6) United Nations control of radio and television programmes through outer space instrumentalities.

IV. SUMMARY RECORDS

15. The Sub-Committee considers that the summary records constitute an integral part of its report and transmits them herewith to the Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space.

V. SUMMARY BY THE CHAIRMAN OF THE SUB-COMMITTEE'S CONCLUSIONS

16. No agreement has been reached on any of the proposals submitted to the Sub-Committee. However, it is the consensus of all delegations who participated in this session that the meetings offered the possibility for a most useful exchange of views.

17. The Sub-Committee submits its report to the parent body, the Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, for its consideration.

News Release by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on the Telstar Contract, July 8, 1962 1

[Extract]

During the coming week the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is scheduled to launch a 170-pound Telstar experimental active repeater communication satellite for the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. A Delta launch vehicle will boost the satellite into orbit from Cape Canaveral, Florida no earlier than July 10th. Telstar is a unique experiment in that it is the first time that a private company has built a satellite and paid for cost of launching with its own funds. It also marks the first international attempt to transmit communications by using an active repeater satellite.

The Project Telstar cooperative agreement was signed on July 27, 1961 by Dr. Robert C. Seamans, Jr., Associate Administrator of NASA and Frederick R. Kappel, then president and now chairman of the board of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company. The agreement provided for

1. The Bell Telephone Laboratories to design and build the Telstar satellites at its own expense, test them according to NASA specifications and deliver them to the launch site at Cape Canaveral. Two launchings and two optional backup launchings were included in the agreement.

2. AT & T to reimburse NASA for the Delta launch vehicles, launch and tracking services. Cost amounts to approximately $3 million per launch.

3. Bell System engineers and scientists to conduct the communications experiments-television, voice and high-speed data-using the company's ground stations at Andover, Maine and Holmdel, N.J. Results will be reported to NASA.

4. NASA to provide Bell Telephone Laboratories with telemetry and spacecraft acquisition information, including data from a radiation experiment aboard the satellite, received, by its world-wide Satellite Instrumentation Network. (These stations are located at Blossom Point, Md.; East Grand Forks, Minn.; Ft. Myers, Fla.; College, Alaska; Mojave, Calif.; St. Johns, Newfoundland; Woomera, Australia; Winkfield, England; Johannesburg, South Africa; Antofagasta and Santiago, Chile; Lima, Peru; and Quito, Ecuador.)

NASA and Bell Telephone Laboratories to analyze the data and all results be made available by NASA to the world scientific community.

Results of the Telstar experiment will be applied to the overall NASA communication satellite research and development program, the objective of which is to provide the technology necessary to establish an operational system of communication satellites at the earliest possible date.

NASA's responsibilities in the Telstar project are under the direction of the Office of Application, NASA Headquarters. Management of these responsibilities is carried out by the Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, Md., including tracking and analyses of data acquired by the tracking network.

1 National Aeronautics and Space Administration news release 62-151, July 8, 1962, pp. 1-3.