A rocket carrying the Pentagon’s secretive X-37B crewless space plane launching last year from the Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla. Image Credit: Craig Bailey/Florida Today, via Associated Press and New York Times
In 1983, George Lucas released “The Return of the Jedi,” and President Reagan proposed creating a system designed to protect the U.S. from any nuclear bombs the Soviet Union might send our way via intercontinental ballistic missiles. In response to Reagan’s proposal, starting in 1984, the Department of Defense began studying the potential for using lasers, particle beams, ground and space-based missile systems, and supercomputers to thwart any attack.
Unfortunately for those who had touted the idea, in 1987, the American Physical Society (APS), an independent group of scientists and engineers tasked with reviewing the research efforts, concluded the technologies required for the system to work were far, perhaps decades, away from being available. Soon afterward, Reagan’s initiative, popularly dubbed the Star Wars program for resembling George Lucas’s imagery, saw funding drop. Then, in 1991, the Soviet Union collapsed, and Clinton eliminated the DOD’s space-based weapon operations in 1993.
So, the threat of humans violating the heavens with lethal weapons evaporated, right? Sadly, no.
Instead, over the four decades since Reagan’s Star Wars project went poof, all the technology needed to implement warfare in space has improved dramatically, and our nation’s dependence upon satellite communication resources has grown exponentially. Moreover, as of 2019, we now have a new branch of the military, the U.S. Space Force. According to Chance Saltzman, the chief of space operations for this agency, “We must protect our space capabilities while also being able to deny an adversary the hostile use of its space capabilities. Because if we do not have space we lose.”
So, this past December, the Pentagon launched X-37B, a driverless space plane with, according to Saltzman’s testimony before a Senate committee, “substantial on-orbit capability that allows us to compete in full-spectrum operation.” Hint, hint: weaponry is aboard?
To justify this endeavor, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the New York Times, “China has fielded a number of space capabilities designed to target our forces. And we’re not going to be able to operate in the Western Pacific successfully unless we can defeat those.” And, recently, the Pentagon has also been floating reports of Putin’s minions developing a space-based nuclear weapon for destroying both commercial and military satellites operated by their enemies.
Both China and Russia, of course, deny any intentions of threatening the U.S.’s assets.
In April, the weaponization of space issue went before the United Nations Security Council when a draft resolution, co-sponsored by 60 nations, called for the permanent banning of “weapons of mass destruction” (nuclear weapons) from space. China and Russia, however, wanted to amend the document to prohibit “all weapons.” After the Council voted 7-7-1 on the amended resolution (Algeria, China, Ecuador, Guyana, Mozambique, Russian Federation, and Sierra Leone in favor; France, Japan, Malta, Republic of Korea, Slovenia, United Kingdom, and the United States against, with Switzerland abstaining), the Council rejected the measure, owing to its failure to obtain the required number of votes.
Thus, it seems the march toward Star Wars was delayed, not ended, and geopolitical strife on Earth continues to threaten our heavens.