Originally posted by academia
Excellent idea Pinkygen!!! I love it

How many turns without return home would you propose? and what about movement factor?
I don't know how big your map is, nor how many turns a unit can stay in the air. In a perfect world, I would give it the ability to go around the entire map without stopping. At the very least, it should be able to overfly the largest country (USSR) without having to refuel.
As for movement, it should also be set high. In a perfect world, it should have the ability to overfly the largest country (USSR) in one turn, otherwise the Soviet's could shoot down. If you can't get that movement out of it, then I suggest giving the satelite a very high defensive value so that it would be hard to kill. Of course, there are weapons that can take out satelites, so you can decide how strong to make it's defensive value.
The space weapon satelite, if you want it, would be similiar in range. I think it's speed should be slower, but it should have a very high attack value so it can destroy whatever it attacks (perhaps by shooting evil lazer of doom down upon it,

)
It would be interesting to see how a satelite plays out in a multi-player game. Would it be considered an act of war to fly a satelite over enemy territory, or should it be accepted as part of the reality? The issue of sattelites and airspace is something the countries in the 1960's had to deal with as well.
As for countries like Spain, Sweden and so on. I don't feel bad leaving them as barbarian, as diplomatically they did not have much affect. It's trickier where India should go though.
Perhaps instead of having SEATO, have the nations in Asia be one civ. For countries like New Zealand and Australia, either attatch them to the US or to NATO. I know technically they were not NATO members, but this whole thing is an issue of gameplay versus realism, and this would be a sacrifice for gameplay.