operating hours per year) on the one hand. On the other hand the exhaust contamination by the attitude and orbital control thrusters and its effects is much less assured by preliminary assessments so far - but it could become a much more severe problem due to reasonable spacing requirements of a SPS-system. If preliminary U.S. - minimum-separation assessments are presumed feasible, the limit is about 0.5 degrees or 350 to 400 km in- orbit distance. This presents roughly an implementation capacity of 70 satellites in GEO for Western Europe, if other than above mentioned constraints are neglected. In fig. 3.1 one can see a reasonable envelope upon these conditions, which fence in the principal orbital positioning of SPS for Western Europe bymaximum orbital longitude limitation and by minimum satellite separation. Another constraint results from a number of less than 24 satellites, which may reduce an economical fraction of electrical power supply in 2025. II.3.1.2 Political and Legal Constraints The political and legal constraints for future SPS utilisation are very difficult to confine to-date, but some more logical remarks on this matter can be anticipated now: The GEO is a very special and limited part of the outer space and because of its intrinsic properties several states are claiming it for future services utilisations. So did eight of the Equatorial Countries at their first meeting at Bogota in 1976. This led the so called "Bogota- Declaration", where the GEO is seen excepted from the Outer Space and its internationalized features, and is interpreted as natural resource of the countries which lie in the (equatorial) orbital plane of the GEO. More reasonalbe seem proportional GEO claims of countries lying within the considered longitudes. These are nearly all Eastern
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