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Space and Unilateral Action

By cortex on October 18, 2006.

Because our foreign policy of unilateral action has worked out so well here on earth, the Bush Administration has decided that we should also apply it to the rest of the universe. Just think how many distant solar systems will welcome us as liberators! From the Washington Post:

President Bush has signed a new National Space Policy that rejects future arms-control agreements that might limit U.S. flexibility in space and asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone "hostile to U.S. interests."

The document, the first full revision of overall space policy in 10 years, emphasizes security issues, encourages private enterprise in space, and characterizes the role of U.S. space diplomacy largely in terms of persuading other nations to support U.S. policy.

"Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power," the policy asserts in its introduction.

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Whoa, hold on a second there: "asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to U.S. interests?'" That means nobody goes to space unless the U.S. says it's okay? Wonder how THAT little assertion will play in Europe, China, India, South America, etc...

This under-reported event, combined with the NSF's bold 2003 assertion that it will be the supervisory agency of ALL basic science and engineering research in the United States by 2008 (no kidding, read their Strategic Plan at nsf.gov), really does start to point to a pre-emptive strike against any kind of private space program.

Wonder what Burt Rutan thinks of this story...

Whoa, hold on a second there: "asserts a right to deny access to space to anyone 'hostile to U.S. interests?'" That means nobody goes to space unless the U.S. says it's okay? Wonder how THAT little assertion will play in Europe, China, India, South America, etc...

This under-reported event, combined with the NSF's bold 2003 assertion that it will be the supervisory agency of ALL basic science and engineering research in the United States by 2008 (no kidding, read their Strategic Plan at nsf.gov), really does start to point to a pre-emptive strike against any kind of private space program.

Wonder what Burt Rutan thinks of this story...