War in Space May Be Closer Than Ever

Rare Earth Deposits & Mining / Rare Earth Exploration, Mining, Processing, & Uses

Date posted: 08/13/15

Lee Billings reports that China, Russia and the U.S. are developing and testing controversial new capabilities to wage war in space despite their denial of such work. The most worrisome military flashpoint is arguably not in the Strait of Taiwan, the Korean Peninsula, Iran, Israel, Kashmir or Ukraine. In fact, it cannot be located on any map of Earth. To see it, just look up into a clear sky, to Earth orbit, where a conflict is unfolding that is an arms race in all but name. The emptiness of outer space might be the last place you would expect militaries to vie over contested territory, except that outer space is not so empty anymore. About 1,300 active satellites wreathe the globe in a crowded nest of orbits, providing worldwide communications, GPS navigation, weather forecasting and planetary surveillance. For militaries that rely on some of those satellites for modern warfare, space has become the ultimate high ground, with the U.S. as the undisputed king of the hill. Now, as China and Russia aggressively seek to challenge U.S. superiority in space with ambitious military space programs of their own, the power struggle risks sparking a conflict that could cripple the entire planet space-based infrastructure. And though it might begin in space, such a conflict could easily ignite full-blown war on Earth. The long-simmering tensions are now approaching a boiling point due to several events, including recent and ongoing tests of possible anti-satellite weapons by China and Russia, as well as last month failure of tension-easing talks at the United Nations. An interloper into geosynchronous orbit need not be an explosives-tipped missile to be a security risk, even sidling up to an adversary strategic satellites is considered a threat. Which is one reason that potential U.S. adversaries might be alarmed by the rendezvous capabilities of GSSAP and of the U.S. Air Force highly maneuverable X-37B robotic space planes.