[RightWhale]

I don't believe we can legally station weapons in orbit.

[Imal]

I don't believe we can legally station weapons in orbit.

Dude, chill. The Space Police might hear you, then we're busted for sure!

[Destro]

You can't. But the international system that governed relations between nations via treaty is dead or wounded. It has been since Clinton violated the international system to go to war in Kosovo. International law is really self-limitations that sovereign nations impose on themselves in order to create or bring some order to the "law of the jungle" that is the reality of geopolitics.

[null and void]

I don't believe we can legally station weapons in orbit.

Not nuclear ones...

[edwin hubble]

"I don't believe we can legally station weapons in orbit. "

I certainly don't know the exact answer to that. By treaty we may be restricted from placing explosives or nuclear weapons in orbit.

Could the inert rod be an exception to the treaty?

[Phsstpok]

I don't believe we can legally station weapons in orbit.

I don't believe we are signatories to the treaty forbidding placing weapons in orbit. (Note: quick Google search with keywords "space weapons" and treaty shows we signed a treaty on the peaceful use of space in 1967 which bans weapons of mass destruction from space, which these tungsten rods would not be) However, with an "aerospace plane" capable of dropping off packages of these smart crowbars (or nukes, or JDAMS) at a moments notice the treaty becomes moot. We woulnd't place them their until war was already going on. At that point treaties governing peace time use of space become moot.

Several folks from inside the Reagan administration are reported to have said that this was the "recallable ICBM" that he mentioned in one "slip of the tongue" that made up the legend of him being out of touch. According to this story he had his aides play up the notion that he was just an old man who misspoke and didn't understand that you couldn't recall an ICBM to cover up that slip. If you can launch an orbital vehicle with whatever payload you want it's like having an ICBM that you can call back if you need to.

It's a neat capability to have, whether with conventional or nuclear weapons. You can literally be over anywhere on the planet in about 90 minutes. Go Falcon!