By the time his shuttle had achieved the relative safety of high orbit, hundreds of nuclear-armed missiles already were being fired at the planet.
They showed Soviet soldiers hurriedly and secretly setting up nuclear-armed missiles.
That is where China's nuclear-armed intercontinental missiles come in.
"They could also be nuclear-armed missiles," Weisskopf added.
The number of nuclear-armed missiles and heavy bombers would be capped at 700 each.
In 1983, President Reagan gave a speech proposing, at the least, research and development into non-nuclear defense systems against nuclear-armed missiles.
After all, if our surveillance systems detect the launch of nuclear-armed missiles in any direction, things could get very tense, very quickly.
First, even with good intentions, launching a nuclear-armed missile would violate the international agreements by which all weaponry is banned from space.
China currently fields about 20 nuclear-armed missiles capable of striking the continental United States.
Each launcher is capable of firing numerous nuclear-armed or conventionally armed missiles.