National Security Space Strategy – Document released by the department of defense indicating that space was “congested, contested, and competitive,” and outlined America’s strategy to maintain leadership in this new environment while still being cooperative with other countries.
Countermeasures – an action taken to counteract a threat
Beijing – Capital of China
Heavy lift vehicle – A class of rocket that can move the heaviest payloads into space. Human missions into space exclusively have used heavy-lift vehicles, while the launch of merely a satellite could be accomplished with a smaller rocket
Terrestrial – relating to the earth
Capricious - Given to sudden and unaccountable changes of mood or behavior
Unilateral - an action taken unilaterally is taken on one’s own, without asking others permission
Bane - A cause of great distress or annoyance
Jeopardizing – endangering, putting into a situation of risk
Deterrence – Attempting to prevent a country from taking an action by threatening consequences that make the action not worth it. For example, the United States attempts to deter China from invading Taiwan by stationing its navy in between the two countries, meaning that the invasion would also force a war with the United States, something that China is not willing to do.
Battery - A fortified emplacement for heavy guns
X37-B – A new and classified military spacecraft
PLA – People’s Liberation Army, the army of China
ISS – International Space Station
NASA – National Aeronautics and Space Administration
DMZ – De-Militarized Zone. A thin stretch of land that separates North and South Korea.
[____] [____] Weaponization happening now - the Air Force has launched its own space weapons. Charles Cooper, CBS editor, 4/22/2010 “ Unmanned Space Plane Opening Door to Space Weaponization?” http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-501465_162-20003159-501465.html After a decade of development work, the Air Force is finally ready to launch its secret space plane, the unmanned X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle from Cape Canaveral. The craft is expected to spend up to nine months in orbit and will re-enter Earth on autopilot. It will land like an airplane at the Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. That much is publicly available. Much of the rest has become fodder for speculation. The only thing the government is saying officially is that the 29-foot-long delta-wing craft will conduct classified experiments while in orbit. Speaking earlier in the week, Gary Payton, the Air Force's deputy under secretary for the space program, said the Air Force's main interest is to test the craft's automated flight control system and learn about the cost of turning it around for launch again. Piecing together the available clues, Popular Mechanics suggests that the X-37B might resemble "a miniature version of the space shuttle. The publication notes that the launch "will mark the fulfillment of a dream the Department of Defense has been pursuing for nearly 50 years: the orbital flight of a military vehicle that combines an airplane's agility with a spacecraft's capacity to travel in orbit at 5 miles per second." NASA began the X-37B project in 1999, but the program was later moved under the Defense Department's auspices. It eventually found a home in the Air Force. The ensuing shroud of secrecy fed speculation that the U.S. military was interested in weaponizing space. So, what is the likely end game? The Christian Science Monitor raises the obvious question of whether this is a precursor to war in orbit. The fact that the US may have an aircraft that can remain airborne for such extended periods "provides you with all kinds of capability, both military and civilian," Chris Hellman, a policy analyst with the National Priorities Project told the Monitor.
[____] The US and China are already engaged in a secret space war.
Tim Ross, Social and Religious Affairs Editor, and Holly Watt, 2/2/2011, “WikiLeaks: US vs China in battle of the anti-satellite space weapons,” The Daily Telegraph, It was a conference call from the Air Force General, Kevin Chilton, the head of US Strategic Command, and Marine General James Cartwright, the vice-chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. They told him the conditions were “ripe” to launch what can now be disclosed was a secret test of America’s anti-satellite weapons, Washington’s first such strike in space for 23 years. That night, the US navy’s Ticonderoga-class cruiser, USS Lake Erie, scored a direct hit on an American spy satellite, known as USA 193. The missile used, a highly sophisticated SM-3, took about three minutes to climb 150 miles above the Earth, where it flew past the satellite before turning back and destroying the target at an impact speed of 22,000mph. The strike came about a year after the Chinese government had launched its own satellite attack, which started a secret “space war”, The Daily Telegraph can disclose. For months the two super powers had been engaged in a private and increasingly acrimonious row over China’s use of weapons in space – an international taboo since President Ronald Reagan abandoned the “star wars” programme in the 1980s.
Uniqueness – Weaponization Now
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[____] Weaponization of space is occurring in the status quo. Stratfor, Global Intelligence company, “United States: The Weaponization of Space,” 4/10/2008, http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/united_states_weaponization_space Summary STRATFOR’s position on the so-called “weaponization” of space is that it is inevitable and, indeed, is already occurring. Space is an integral part of U.S. military capability and therefore, in all practical terms, has been weaponized. In the 1950s, the United States began pushing for an international treaty on outer space — even before the 1957 launch of Sputnik atop a modified version of the world’s first intercontinental ballistic missile. Fortunes have changed somewhat in the last 50 years, and the Pentagon has little interest in taking on further legally binding constraints these days. This is especially true in space, where “weaponization” is not only inevitable, but already well under way.
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[____] Chinese space weapon tests prove that weaponization is occurring. Joshua Philipp, writer for the Epoch Times, 2/8/2011, “US Strategy Bringing Governance to Outer Space,” The world was caught off guard in 2007 when the Chinese regime blasted its Fengyun-1C spacecraft out of orbit, sending thousands of shards pummeling in all directions. The act was a wake-up call for the international community—a handful of such incidents could render entire orbits unusable, since each destroyed satellite could have a butterfly effect of destruction, sending even more scrap pieces hurling through orbit. Space is a fragile place, not ruled by any nation, yet vital to modern military operations and modern lifestyles. To help protect this domain, the U.S. government unveiled its National Security Space Strategy (NSSS) on Feb. 4, bringing with it a set of standards for space. The report raises concern around three main areas, namely that “space is becoming increasingly congested, contested, and competitive.
