Re: A fight to protect ‘the most valuable real estate in space’

[Monte Davis]

"opening up the possibility that outer space would become a new front in
modern warfare"... ?!?!?

That's been a possibility -- and from time to time an expensively (if
unproductively) pursued capability -- for 50+ years. Over that span the US
has very likely spent more on it than anyone, and I wouldn't be surprised
if we're spending more on it right now than the "threatening" Russians and
Chinese. NB deep in the article that we had done in ***1985*** what the
Chinese did in 2007 --- i.e. sent up a missile to blow up one of our own
dead satellites as a proof-of-principle test.

I think what we have here, in the fine old tradition of the "missile gap"
in 1957-60 and of the early-1980s stories of Soviet anti-satellite or
anti-missile super-lasers that helped pave the way for SDI ("Star Wars"),
is the DoD saying "they're ahead of us!" (in pursuit of increased funding
from Congress) when it's more likely that they're catching up.


On Tue, May 10, 2016 at 3:08 PM, David Morris <fqmorris at gmail.com> wrote:

>
> https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/economy/a-fight-to-protect-the-most-valuable-real-estate-in-space/2016/05/09/df590af2-1144-11e6-8967-7ac733c56f12_story.html?hpid=hp_hp-top-table-main_spacewars6p%3Ahomepage%2Fstory
>
>
> The first salvo was a missile launch by the Chinese in 2007 that blew up a
> dead satellite and littered space with thousands of pieces of debris. But
> it was another Chinese launch three years ago that made the Pentagon really
> snap to attention, opening up the possibility that outer space would become
> a new front in modern warfare.
>
>
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