New York TIMES / September 25, 2007 The Space Age >From the Start, the Space Race Was an Arms Race By WILLIAM J. BROAD
Sputnik forced the Eisenhower administration to consider a scary new world of space arms. It did so in two ways: talking peace and preparing for war. That duality held firm for much of the ensuing half century. Washington publicly encouraged peaceful uses of space even while spending billions to explore futuristic weaponry like death rays fired from rocket ships. By and large, those arms remained as fictional as those in "The War of the Worlds." But analysts say the Bush administration is now tilting the balance toward deploying real armaments, mainly antimissile interceptors that would speed into space to smash enemy warheads. But it also wants to loft jets that can shoot deadly laser beams and orbital battle stations that can hurl swarms of lethal munitions. Space weapons are "still definitely part of the program," said Philip E. Coyle III, a former director of weapon testing at the Pentagon. "But they don't emphasize it because the arms-control people come out of the woodwork." Critics say the overall program is costly and unnecessary, and the funds better spent on countering such threats as terrorism. Today, the biggest item in the nation's arms budget is building antimissile weapons. For next year, the administration wants nearly $11 billion, including a down payment on a $300 million effort known as the Space Test Bed. more at: http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/science/space/25mili.html?ref=science -- Jim Devine / "Segui il tuo corso, e lascia dir le genti." (Go your own way and let people talk.) -- Karl, paraphrasing Dante.
