Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Blowing Up Satellites

Yesterday's NY Times article titled, "U.S. Knew of China’s Missile Test, but Kept Silent" is a very troubling look at the US response to China's anti-satellite experiments.

I ask you - should we not be very scared of China's ability to blow up satellites? Should we not also be worried that the US is simply watching them do it?

In today's interconnected digital world the American economy is literally driven by communications technology. I can not even begin to imagine the destruction and disruption in our way of life that could be caused by the destruction of key communication satellites. Even more frightening is the fact that the government and the military relies heavily on satellites for intelligence, communications, missile guidance, operations, imagining, and more. Our ability to gather intelligence and to use key military operations could potentially be crippled with the blast of a few anti-satellite pop-shots in outer space.

I only hope that behind the scenes our intelligence and military are developing anti-anti-satellite technologies, because the inaction displayed by the President is simply unacceptable.