U.S. Rejects Any Flag-Planting As Legal Claim to Rule Moon
New York Times, September 14, 1959. This article begins, "The United States is taking the legal position that just planting flags on the moon - as the Soviet Union says it has done - will not give the Russians or anyone else any claim to rule over that body."
Later in the article, John M. Raymond, deputy legal advisor for the State Department noted about rule over the moon that "sovereignty doesn't mean anything without possession."
William Hyman, an international legal expert in space law states in the article that, "the civilized world has largely adopted the attitude set forth by Secretary of State Charles Evan Hughes in 1924 that there must also be occupation with an intent to make it permanent" for a claim of ownership to be recognized as valid.
Original article available in the archives at www.nytimes.com