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The Chinese anti-satellite test is terrible news for international stability and security (Looks like those scientists best bump up the clock again)
de My Name 01/18/2007 10:06
Chinese Satellite Test Draws Sharp Protest From Other Nations
By Marc Kaufman and Dafna Linzer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, January 18, 2007; 2:46 PM
The Chinese military used a ground-based missile to hit and destroy one of its
aging satellites orbiting more than 500 miles in space last week, an apparent
test of anti-satellite technology that raised concerns about a possible arms
race in space and drew sharp protests from other space-faring nations.
The satellite-destroying test is believed to be the first of its kind in two
decades by any nation, and experts say it dramatically illustrates Chinese
capabilities in space and their willingness to face the certainty of broad
international criticism.
"The U.S. believes China's development and testing of such weapons is
inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the
civil space area," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said
today. "We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action
to the Chinese."
In addition to introducing a renewed military dimension to space, the
destruction of the Chinese satellite created a large "debris cloud" that can
seriously damage other satellites in nearby orbit, and possibly even spaceships
passing through the region on their way to the moon or beyond.
Analysts said that based on computer models, as many as 300,000 pieces of debris
may have been created with the explosion. While many will be very small, they
said, hundreds will be large enough to create potentially serious problems.
Both the United States and the former Soviet Union tested anti-satellite
technology in the 1980s, and the United States shot down one of its orbiting
satellites in 1985. Partially as a result of the debris problem, both sides
stopped the practice.
The Chinese test, which was first reported online by the magazine Aviation Week
and Space Technology, comes at a time of heightened tensions between the United
States and China regarding space. China is leading an effort in the United
Nations to set up an international conference that would address what many
consider to be an imminent space arms race. The United States, however, has been
the one space-faring nation to oppose the idea, arguing that it wasn't needed
because there is no arms race in space.
The Bush Administration also released a National Space Policy last fall that
strongly asserted an American right to defend itself in space against any
actions it considered hostile.
The United States military is especially dependent on space-based satellites for
navigation, communications and missile guidance, while the American economy
could also be broadly damaged by any disruptions of communications, weather and
other satellites. Some in the administration believe this has made the nation
especially vulnerable to attack, and has led them to propose efforts to develop
ways to defend satellites in space.
The issue of possible hostilities in space became more real in August when
National Reconnaissance Office Director Donald M. Kerr told reporters that a U.S.
satellite had recently been "painted," or illuminated, by a ground-based laser
in China. The United States did not make any formal protest of that event, but
it did today regarding the latest Chinese action.
Johndroe of the NSC said that the Chinese satellite was destroyed using a ground-based
medium-range ballistic missile, which slammed into the object 537 miles above
earth on Jan. 11. He said that Australia and Canada have already lodged protests
as well, and that Britain, South Korea and Japan were expected to follow suit.
"In my view, the Chinese are sending a strong signal here," said Jeffrey Kueter,
president of the George C. Marshall Institute, a nonprofit space and defense
think tank in Washington. "They're saying they can hold our space-based, war-fighting
capability at risk, and are putting into doubt our ability to challenge them.
They're a rising space competitor."
Keuter said the test makes it essential for the United States to get more
serious about developing technology to defend against satellite attacks.
Michael Krepon, president emeritus of the Henry L. Stimson Center, another non-profit
involved with security issues in Washington, called the Chinese test a likely --
and unfortunate -- response to American space policies.
"The Chinese are telling the Pentagon that they don't own space," he said. "We
can play this game, too, and we can play it dirtier than you."
Krepon said the Chinese test "blows a hole through the Bush administration
reasoning behind not talking to anybody about space arms control -- that there
is no space arms race. It looks like there is one at this point."
Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) said the Chinese action makes it essential that the
administration begin negotiations to stop any possible space arms race.
"The Chinese anti-satellite test is terrible news for international stability
and security, and could presage the dawn of a new arms race -- this time in
space," Markey said. "American satellites are the soft underbelly of our
national security, and it is urgent that President Bush move to guarantee their
protection by initiating an international agreement to ban the development,
testing, and deployment of space weapons and anti-satellite systems."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/01/18/AR2007011801029.html
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A government, of freemasons, by freemasons, and for freemasons.
But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light:
for whatsoever doth make manifest is light.
The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single,
thy whole body shall be full of light.
But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness.
If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness!
Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead,
and Christ shall give thee light.
The light shineth in darkness;
and the darkness comprehended it not.