Here's something you might be interested in.
Ask a Hipster — Advice you didn't know you needed
Big Screen — Movie commentary
Blurt — Music's inside track
Booze News — San Diego spirits
Classical Music — Immortal beauty
Classifieds — Free and easy
Cover Stories — Front-page features
Drinks All Around — Bartenders' drink recipes
Excerpts — Literary and spiritual excerpts
Feast! — Food & drink reviews
Feature Stories — Local news & stories
Fishing Report — What’s getting hooked from ship and shore
From the Archives — Spotlight on the past
Golden Dreams — Talk of the town
The Gonzo Report — Making the musical scene, or at least reporting from it
Letters — Our inbox
Movies@Home — Local movie buffs share favorites
Movie Reviews — Our critics' picks and pans
Musician Interviews — Up close with local artists
Neighborhood News from Stringers — Hyperlocal news
News Ticker — News & politics
Obermeyer — San Diego politics illustrated
Outdoors — Weekly changes in flora and fauna
Overheard in San Diego — Eavesdropping illustrated
Poetry — The old and the new
Reader Travel — Travel section built by travelers
Reading — The hunt for intellectuals
Roam-O-Rama — SoCal's best hiking/biking trails
San Diego Beer — Inside San Diego suds
SD on the QT — Almost factual news
Sheep and Goats — Places of worship
Special Issues — The best of
Street Style — San Diego streets have style
Surf Diego — Real stories from those braving the waves
Theater — On stage in San Diego this week
Tin Fork — Silver spoon alternative
Under the Radar — Matt Potter's undercover work
Unforgettable — Long-ago San Diego
Unreal Estate — San Diego's priciest pads
Your Week — Daily event picks
Do you go through customs on your way to the moon?
Dear Matt:
How high up over a country is international air space considered to begin?
-- J.K., Leucadia
Can't pull any official treaties or international agreements out of the hat to answer this one. Before 1957 most countries that cared about such things claimed the air space directly above them, all the way to the edge of the universe. But the Russians changed the game when they launched Sputnik. In the last 50 years, dozens of countries have chucked hardware into the galactic free-for-all, with only the sketchiest of territorial guidelines-- to wit: "The upper limit of air space subject to national jurisdiction has not been authoritatively defined. International practice has established that [national] air space terminates at some point below the point at which artificial satellites can be placed in orbit without free-falling to earth." That's the official, albeit fuzzy word from the U.S. Department of State. So, how high is up? Oh, 75 to 80 miles. If there's no legally agreed upon limit, there is a practical one. Below about 400,000 feet a satellite would be subject to too much drag from the atmosphere to maintain an orbit.
Here's something you might be interested in.
Do you go through customs on your way to the moon?
Do you go through customs on your way to the moon?
Dear Matt:
How high up over a country is international air space considered to begin?
-- J.K., Leucadia
Can't pull any official treaties or international agreements out of the hat to answer this one. Before 1957 most countries that cared about such things claimed the air space directly above them, all the way to the edge of the universe. But the Russians changed the game when they launched Sputnik. In the last 50 years, dozens of countries have chucked hardware into the galactic free-for-all, with only the sketchiest of territorial guidelines-- to wit: "The upper limit of air space subject to national jurisdiction has not been authoritatively defined. International practice has established that [national] air space terminates at some point below the point at which artificial satellites can be placed in orbit without free-falling to earth." That's the official, albeit fuzzy word from the U.S. Department of State. So, how high is up? Oh, 75 to 80 miles. If there's no legally agreed upon limit, there is a practical one. Below about 400,000 feet a satellite would be subject to too much drag from the atmosphere to maintain an orbit.
Comments