Support is growing for a specific kind of multilateral space agreement that borrows heavily from the Bush administration's own preferences. The mechanism in question is a Code of Conduct for responsible spacefaring nations that could either take the form of political compacts or executive agreements among like-minded states that wish to continue to enjoy the national security and economic benefits that satellites provide.
The authors argue that the Chinese anti-satellite weapons test is unlikely to spark an arms race between the U.S. and China but does illustrate the need for "rules of the road" in outer space.
The Indian government has approved spending 14.2 billion rupees ($316 million) to develop an independent regional satellite navigation system that would launch starting in 2008 and reduce the nation's dependence on the GPS system operated by the U.S. Department of Defense.
The author argues that it is in the best interests of the U.S. to cooperate with the European Union on the development of an expanded space surveillance network.
CDI Vice President Theresa Hitchens believes that ?new-found zeal at DoD for developing space-based weapons both for missile defense and counterspace (i.e. anti-satellite) operations aimed at achieving space control? may hurt the space environment. Namely, these space activities stand a very real chance of creating debris that could have catastrophic consequences for our space assets.
The author argues that the U.S. is bypassing public debate over the role of space weapons by adding funding weapon systems that "go beyond the mere protection of space assets" in the 2005 defense budget.
Theresa Hitchens parses the language in U.S. defense budgets and research plans to conclude that while space weapons may be "difficult to precisely define or even categorize" they are definitely "being actively researched and planned as a part of a future U.S. arsenal."