Sherry Chandler » Weaponizing space
Weaponizing space
Here’s the most disheartening thing I’ve read in a while: Flexing Muscle, China Destroys Satellite in Test:
China successfully carried out its first test of an antisatellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said yesterday.
Only two nations — the Soviet Union and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in antisatellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid-1980s.
Arms control experts called the test, in which the weapon destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow an antisatellite arms race.
… “This is the first real escalation in the weaponization of space that we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “It ends a long period of restraint.”
White House officials said the United States and other nations, which they did not identify, had “expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese.” Despite its protest, the Bush administration has long resisted a global treaty banning such tests because it says it needs freedom of action in space.
That last sentence speaks volumes. Star Wars, indeed.
Update: Here’s a little different take on this event at TPM Muckraker.
On a corollary note, the local group of United for Peace and Justice is taking buses to Washington on January 27 for an antiwar march. More information at the link.
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