This claim will be judged true if before 2003/1/1 a new developing nation launches a satellite using its own launch capacity.
For purposes of this claim, "Developing Nation" includes all countries that are not in Europe, the Former Soviet Union, China, Canada, United States, New Zealand, Australia, Israel, Japan, Taiwan, North Korea or South Korea(or new nations formed out of territories in these countries at the time this claim was written). India usually included among developing nations but since India has already launched a satellite another launch from India will not satisfy this claim.
For purposes of this claim, Mark's Wade's Encyclopedia Astronautica will be used as an authoritative source to determine both the country implementating a launch system and whether the system has in fact launched a satellite(in the case of North Korea, the Korean team claimed a successful satellite launch but this was not recognized by Enclopedia Astronautica). Traditionally, Encyclopedia Astronautica has listed the country of origin of all launch systems. In the case of a joint projects, only one country must be a developing nation for this claim to be true. The supplementary comments in Enclopedia Astronautica about the source of a launch systems technology will not be used for purposes of this claim(i.e. The SR-3 " was developed with the assistance of Israel and is believed to be essentially identical to the Israeli Jericho missile/Shavit launch vehicle" but the country listed in Encyclopedia Astronautica is South Africa so it would be considered a South African rocket for purposes of this claim and its use to launch a satellite would satisfy the intent of this claim.) In the event Encyclopedia Astronautica is no longer published, the judge may substitute a similarly authoritative source.
Background: Recently North Korea has announced its intention to launch a satellite. The CIA has alleged that this launch system uses technology obtained from China--and that the North Korean launch may constitute a special security risk to the United States. The intent of this claim is to assess whether other teams in the developing world will soon obtain similar capacity. Representatives of the US CIA have admitted publicly that they underestimated North Korea's rocketry capability in a Sept. 1998 article published by the Washington Post. "So far, the Clinton administration is still holding to the policy that it will be at least the year 2010 to 2015 before another nation can threaten U.S. territory with ballistic missiles." according to a September 1998 article published by the Associated Press and Reuters.
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