An Al Jazeera English story based on wire-service sources has a representative of the United States National Security Council, Gordon Johndroe, claiming that on January 11 the People's Republic of China used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to knock out one of their "aging" weather satellites about 865 kilometers above the Earth. The story continues:
The satellite-killing capability demonstrated by China was no surprise to the Bush administration, which revised US national space policy in October with an eye on boosting protection of US civilian and military satellites.
Does this mean that the White House sees this as the latest ploy for advancing their agenda by cultivating a culture of fear? Will this weekends "Sabbath-day gasbags" (thank you, Calvin Trillin) spend their air time obsessing over whether or not our satellites are safe; and what will they mean by "our satellites?" Will they include the ones that deliver HBO (or Fox around the world)? Will they include the ones that provide source data for Google Earth? Will they only be concerned about the ones that cannot be discussed explicitly (knowing full well what they are)?
Once again, irony rules. All those dreams of how broadband will make the whole world a better place may now have to take a back seat while "powers that be" start worrying about how to engage in an arms race in that stretch of space between the Earth and the Moon. I wonder if the folks who manage the minute-hand of the "Doomsday Clock" anticipated that a scenario like this one could come into play!
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