All of this talk of Revenge of the Sith as well as this story in the New York Times today provoked me into thinking about space weaponization. I do not think that at this time, space weaponization is necessary. I fully support moves to develop weapons for space, but there is no need to impliment them at this time. There is no challange to US superiority in space, and does not seem to be for the near future. The Chinese space program, though possibly driven by military ambitions, is still in its infancy, and will be for the next decade at least. As we know from the September 11th Commision, spy satellites are good, but human intelligence is more valuable.

I applaud the Air Force for their efforts (don't look to the NYT article for specific example, look here), but space weaponization is a longterm goal, and does not need to be actualized in the near future. What first needs to develop is space privatization, much like the East India Company of old, companies who are striving towards space exploration should be encouraged by the government.

Posted by Ryan S. on Wednesday, May 18, 2005 at 2:40 PM | Permalink |