extent that there is one, is not one of the right to gather and use the resource. As indicated previously, the hopefully resolved practically in the interests of full use, the area of major international discussion relates to the presence of an orbiting geostationary space object above an equatorial State. Prospects for the lawful use of high altitude solar energy are not to be determined exclusively by interpretation of the language of the 1967 Treaty and perceptions of practices that may have ripened into customary international law. Nor is the lawful use to be determined wholly by the space resource States--powerfully influential though their outlooks may be. 4.4 Present Interest of COPUOS in Legal Use of Solar Energy Although the United States had displayed an interest in developing a SPS at least as early as 1972, this subject did not come to the attention of COPUOS until 1975 at which time it asked the Secretariat to prepare a background paper. This resulted in "Solar Power Stations in Space." In 1976 COPUOS recommended that the Secretary-General request States to submit information relating to the generation or transmission of solar energy by means of space technology. Such information was received in 1976 from three States, including the United States, and also from the European Space Agency. A report was received from Argentina in 1977. U.N. Doc. A/AC.105/(XIX) CRP.l, June 1, 1976. U.N. Doc. 105/181, December 1, 1976. U.N. Doc. A/AC.105/181/Add. 1, February 15, 1977. Argentina had previously responded to a 1975 statement of the Chairman of COPUOS on sources of energy from outer space by supplying COPUOS in May 1976 with a working paper entitled "International Problems Arising from the Exploitation of Solar and other Related Energies." U.N. Doc. A/AC.105/L.91, June 9, 1976.
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