Did the Chinese violate any treaties about not making messes in space when they destroyed their own weather satelllite? My dim understanding is that this issue remains unsettled in the Liability Convention, due to an inability to agree on a definition of the word "debris." Any space lawyers out there more up to date?

I'd think that, at a minimum, if any of the bits strike someone's satellite, or ISS, that the Chinese could be held liable under the OST. If it could be proven that it resulted from this event, that is (probably a difficult thing to do).

Is China a signatory to any of those treaties? I confess I don't know but I've always been under the impression, for whatever reason, that the Chinese had tended to distance themselves from such things.

Taking this to another level, if they're willing to generate space debris in violation of treay (signatory or not), does anyone think they will blink an eye at claiming the Moon as Chinese territory?

The PRC signed he Outer Space Treaty in 1983 (http://www.nti.org/db/china/spacepos.htm). The Liability Convention thereof creates ordinary liability for space-to-space damage, which a debris strike would constitute. Since NORAD tracks space debris down to quite small pieces (we know they can track a glove-sized object by their own admission) it could be proven provided the fragment was large enough. Getting them to admit it and pay up might be a harder matter, and getting an international body to accept NORAD data might be problematic as well.

It took a long time for the Soviets to pay up for the Cosmos RTG that landed in Canada and splattered radioactives all over the tundra -- finally they just did some fiscal hand-waving over a wheat deal and the Canadians agreed to call it a payment.

A PRC debris damage case might well go the same way. It makes the case for a more generally workable space traffic control for Earth orbit and a more workable adjudication and payment system.

Well, if they don't pay up, it would be necessary to put up a lasersat "vacuum cleaner" to either vaporize the stuff or deorbit it. :)

Hmmm... is it "legitimate" to de-orbit "illegitimate" space debris onto the territory of the entity that produced the debris?

"Hmmm... is it "legitimate" to de-orbit "illegitimate" space debris onto the territory of the entity that produced the debris?"

Actually, no. The Liability Convention makes space-to-space damage ordinary liability, i.e., the party that created the debris must be proven to blame. Space-to-earth damage is absolute liability; you only need to prove the identity of the responsible launching state to affix liability.

Interesting point, Jim

I'm actually not sure about that from a legal point of view. If a ground-based system in Country A deorbits a piece of space debris belonging to, say the Krasnovians so that it lands on Krasnovian territory, I'm not sure how the existing treaties would give a theory for recovering damages. The Krasnovians can't very well sue for damage to their debris -- it had no economic value. And as for damage to persons or property on the ground, isn't Krasnovia responsible for any damage from that debris?

Not that this is good policy idea, of course -- but the notion of a second party interfering with the orbit of a satellite to cause it to impact the Earth doesn't seem to be covered by the existing treaties.

If you really wanted to be sarcastic, you could appeal to Article 8 of the Outer Space Treaty, which states in part that...

"Such objects or component parts found beyond the limits of the State Party to the Treaty on whose registry they are carried shall be returned to that State Party".

And say "hey, we found this piece of space junk of Krasnovian registry, so we returned it to Krasnovia ;-)

Which is not to say that it is or isn't legal, and definitely has nothing to do with whether it is or isn't a good idea -- just another area the legal regime doesn't really cover.

Yes, the OST/LC didn't anticipate earth-to-space damage!