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WASl-!INGTON, D.C. 

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THE NRO STAFF August 17, 1971 

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MEMORANDUM FOR DR. McLUCAS 

SUBJECT: Visit to Mr. Herb Reis, U.N. Delegation 

To the right is a brief surmnary of a meeting with 

Mr. Herb Reis, U.S. U.N., on August 16 which was concerned 

with proceedings of the Committee on Peaceful Uses of 

Outer Space. Lt Colonel Hofmann and Major Coyle from the 

Staff visited Mr. Reis. This memorandum is for your 

information only. 

HAROLD S, COYLE, JR. 

Major, USAF 

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j,lil1 NATIONAL RECONNAISSANCE OFFICE 

WASH!NGTON, D.C. 

THE NRO STAFF August 17, 1971 

BYEMAN 

MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD 

SUBJECT: Visit to Mr. Herb Reis, UoN. Delegation 

Lt Colonel Hofmann and Major Coyle visited Mr. Herb 

Reis, Counsel to the U.N. Ambassador and Delegate to the 

Committee on Peaceful Uses of Outer Space, at the U.N. 

Mission on August 16. The purpose of the visit was to 

discuss the implications of current U0 N. Outer Space 

Conunittee activities on our ability to continue overflights in a permissive environment. 

After many years of deliberation, the Liability 

Convention is being finalized for submission to the 

General Assembly.· As a result the Committee will have 

a great deal of surplus energy to direct toward several 

other issues. These issues are concerned with definition 

of a boundary of outer space, legal and ethical parameters 

of earth resource satellites, and identification and marking 

of spacecraft. 

Mr. Reis informed us that the Liability Convention 

will be finalized in the Outer Space Connnittee in September. 

Both the Legal and Scientific and Technical Subcommittees 

have been working on such a convention since 1964. The 

General Assembly will receive the convention in October. 

Despite initial desires by the smaller countries, the 

convention, although arbitration is binding, does not 

require that a country be forced to settlement of a claim 

submitted by the injured country upon which space debris 

has fallen. }1r. Reis did not feel that there would be any 

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pressures for explanations beyond a statement of origin 

data of liable spacecraft pieces. 

With regard to the future proceedings of the Outer 

Space Committee and its subcommittees, Mr. Reis informed 

us that the Soviets have requested an informal bilateral 

discussion prior to the convening of the Outer Space 

Committee in September in order to discuss "priorities" 

of future activities. The Soviets have submitted a draft 

Moon Treaty proposal. This proposed treaty is almost an 

exact duplicate of the existing International Space Treaty 

except that it provides for dissemination of physical 

material returned from space such as moon rocks to the 

world scientific community. Our U.N. Mission does not 

want to make an issue of the apparent redundancy since 

it is suspected that the Soviets have submitted the proposed 

treaty in order to occupy the time of the Corrnnittee as a 

whole. 

Mr. Reis did not feel that there is any immediate 

concern with regard to pressures to arrive at a definition 

of outer space. He felt that once ERTS-A is flown, there 

might be moves by third countries for formal discussion. 

Some time following the ERTS-A mission, there is an 

Ad Hoc Committee meeting scheduled late next year to 

arrive at general legal and ethical parameters of earth 

resource surveys. Mr. Reis felt that this would be a very 

general effort and that the main unknown at this time is 

whether the Peoples Republic of China will be admitted 

to the U.N. and whether it will be given membership to the 

Outer Space Connnittee. In this event, China would be in a 

position to formally object to overflights by satellite. 

Also under study at this time is the possibility of 

i~entification and marking of spacecraft. We gathered that 

Mr. Reis would like to see some means available in the 

future to enable conclusive identification of spacecraft 

pieces. We held an open ended discussion on this matter 

stating some concerns associated with stamping, impregnating 

or otherwise marking spacecraft components. 

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In summary, the dialogue was very beneficial and 

Mr. Reis appeared to be extremely supportive of the continuation of the present pennissive environment. The two 

major points of interest were first, the desire on the 

part of the Soviets to continue the policy of "gentle 

obstructionism" and the apparent desire of the U.S. to 

go along with this policy; anq second, the potential 

impact of admission of the Peoples Republic of China to 

the UoN, Mr. Reis expressed a desire to visit us to 

discuss further the military uses of space since we were 

constrained by physical security in discussing TK matters 

BYEMAN 

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in his office. Both Mr. Reis and Ambassador Bush apparently 

remain close to the current intelligence status through 

frequent briefings at the Mission. No innnediate action 

items were generated from the meeting. 

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Major, USAF 

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