Nations with secondary space programs--some of which once joined China in criticizing U.S. space-control policy--are now promoting their own ideas of controlling space through advanced communications and networking. At the Strategic Space and Defense conference in Omaha (Oct. 9 to 11), military leaders from France and India were among those advocating a new role for nations operating in the United States' shadow.
On the eve of a strategic space conference, the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy has released a long-delayed report on the military uses of space. The report had been held up for more than 15 months, after press reports in May 2005 generated controversy over whether the U.S. is seeking "space dominance."
Ground-based RF jammers and laser "dazzlers" might pose a more immediate threat to satellites than deployments of systems formally defined as space weapons, warns a study published by the American Academy of Arts and Sciences.
The nation's largest intelligence agency by budget and in control of all U.S. spy satellites, NRO is talking openly with the U.S. Air Force Space Command about actively denying the use of space for intelligence purposes to any other nation at any time - not just adversaries, but even longtime allies.
Nuclear propulsion for spacecraft will become NASA's highest priority as the agency seeks close to $1 billion in fiscal 2003 for research programs, with technology enablers taking priority over planetary missions.
Loring Wirbel of Citizens for Peace in Space argues that the Pentagon is grossly underestimating the budgetary costs of a space control strategy.