Obama Opens Door to Space Arms Treaty

[Lone_Star_Dem]

Source: New York Times

The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a space policy that renounces the unilateral stance of the Bush administration and instead emphasizes international cooperation, including the possibility of an arms control treaty that would limit the development of space weapons.

In recent years, both China and the United States have destroyed satellites in orbit, raising fears about the start of a costly arms race that might ultimately hurt the United States because it dominates the military use of space. China smashed a satellite in January 2007, and the United States did so in February 2008.

The new space policy explicitly says that Washington will “consider proposals and concepts for arms control measures if they are equitable, effectively verifiable, and enhance the national security of the United States and its allies.”

The Bush administration, in the space policy it released in August 2006, said it “rejects any limitations on the fundamental right of the United States to operate in and acquire data from space,” a phrase that was interpreted as giving a green light to the development and use of antisatellite weapons.

Read more: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/29/science/space/29orbit.html?hp

[WHEN CRABS ROAR]

1. No space based weapons, period!

[boppers]

4. That ship sailed in 1957...

...depending on how you define "weapon".

Is an in-orbit satellite that goes "ping", but can be used for a missile guidance system, a weapon? That's what sputnik did, and it's how our modern weapons and navigation systems work.

So, how are you defining weapon?

[GlennWRECK]

2. Nice job Bush

"rejects any limitations on the fundamental right of the United States to operate in and acquire data from space,”

Bravo :)

[KoKo]

3. KOOL! Obama fights for us in Space...It's a GOOD THING...

:party:

[slackmaster]

5. When X-ray lasers are outlawed, only outlaws will have X-ray lasers

I'll give up my particle beam when they pry it from my cold-dead hands.