Space Security

This title explores the security implications of military, scientific, and commercial activities in space. The increasing use of satellites for vital communication services, environmental monitoring, navigation, weather prediction, and scientific research is mirrored by the development of military capabilities in space that go far beyond the traditional intelligence and early warning missions of the Cold War period. Protecting and enhancing U.S. military capability in space has emerged as an important focus of military planning, with recent official documents proposing various anti-satellite and space-based weapons. Serious public discussion of military space plans has not yet occurred in the United States, although important questions of policy, planning, and budgeting loom. The development of space affects a range of government, commercial, and scientific interests around the world, but U.S. leaders have yet to propose a policy framework that adequately balances these different forces. Space Security examines the implications of U.S. space policy and planning. It considers the physical constraints on securing objects in space; the interaction of military, scientific, and commercial activities in space; Chinese and Russian perspectives on U.S. space plans; and the possible elements of a more comprehensive space security system.