Both the U.S. and China have announced intentions of returning humans to the moon by 2020 at the earliest. And the two countries are already in the early stages of a new space race that appears to have some of the heat and skullduggery of the one between Washington and Moscow during the Cold War, when space was a proxy battleground for geopolitical dominance.
Geoffrey Forden, PhD -- an MIT research associate and a former UN weapons inspector and strategic weapons analyst at the Congressional Budget Office -- examines the possibilities of an all-out Chinese assault on American satellites in this three-part article.
China launched its first lunar probe Wednesday. Japan sent an orbiter up last month. India is close behind. It's an economic competition with military undertones.
Projecting the future of space utilization, including the weaponization of space, is fraught with peril. Nader Elhefnawy looks back at one particularly alarmist prediction and what it means for current concerns about military activities in space.
A new study has concluded that space solar power is feasible, but leaves unanswered who should proceed and how. Taylor Dinerman argues that China, with its voracious appetite for energy, can play a role as both a customer and co-developer.
The Pentagon said Wednesday that China is concealing its spending on weapons programs, including technology to disrupt U.S. space efforts.
China now has the capability to jam the Global Positioning System, widely used by both the military to, say, guide precision weapons and by civilians to, for example, provide timing for telecom networks, according to the annual Defense Department report on "Military Power of the People's Republic of China".
In an indirect rebuke of Chinese muscle-flexing in space, Israel's defense minister and Air Force chief warned that emerging anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities in the hands of regional adversaries would require Israel to deploy its own defenses against anti-satellite threats.
The US says it is reevaluating possible space cooperation with China, including joint Moon exploration, following Beijing's recent anti-satellite weapon test.
The Chinese government confirmed today that it had conducted a successful test of a new anti-satellite weapon, but said it had no intention of participating in a "space race."