[time-nuts] Spacecraft Timekeeping

Chris Albertson albertson.chris at gmail.com
Thu Mar 10 02:22:33 UTC 2011


On Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 5:43 PM, Sanjeev Gupta <ghane0 at gmail.com> wrote:

> Can you claim a rocket launch as an Export Credit?  "Yes, Officer, we
> will report to the Customs Department if this equipment re-enters US
> Territory.  We will keep track of it, thank you.  And believe me, I
> will know _precisely_ when that happens."

There is precedent  for this in the US.  I know a case where we paid
import duty on an expensive part and then applied for refund and were
granted the refund of duty after launch because the part was
re-exported.   I forget the exact technicalities but the US customs
people treated the item as being imported only for re-shipment outside
the US.

Here is another also from US Customs (My all time favorite bit of bureaucracy)
http://i.space.com/images/i/4460/i02/Apollo-11-Immigration-02.jpg

Another well known case was the optical window used on a Pioneer Venus
spacecraft.  It was cut from a rather large diamond imported from
Europe.  As above import duty was refunded.  This made the news
because of the huge cost of the 3/4 inch diameter diamond they sliced
the window from.




-- 
=====
Chris Albertson
Redondo Beach, California



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