The United States, Australia and Canada have voiced concerns to China over the first known satellite-killing test in space in more than 20 years, the White House said on Thursday."The U.S. believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese."
Using a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile, the test knocked out an aging Chinese weather satellite about 537 miles above the Earth on January 11 through "kinetic impact," or by slamming into it, Johndroe said.
The ideal of non-militarized space was always a mirage, anyway. The only reason that the Soviets had a gentlemen's agreement in that regard was because they knew they couldn't compete with us in space, and we were content to keep military force out of space as long as everyone else did. The Chinese are becoming a legitimate threat to our assets in space, though, and it is essential that we have new assets in place in orbit and on the moon to counter that threat, lest one day we find out that the Chinese have cut our (military and commercial) communications and surveillance abilities.
No comments:
Post a Comment