U.S. Lawmakers React to Chinese Antisatellite Test

U.S. lawmakers have issued different policy recommendations following China’s antisatellite test last month, Inside the Pentagon reported yesterday.  One Republican senator has encouraged the Bush administration to spur development of space-based missile defenses, and a Democratic representative has urged the administration to avoid an arms race in space through diplomacy (see GSN, Jan. 24).

China used a modified ballistic missile on Jan. 11 to ram and destroy one of its own weather satellites.

The test demonstrated that space has already been militarized and therefore the United States must act to defend its satellites by deploying space-based missile interceptors, Senator John Kyl (R-Ariz.) said in a speech this week to the Heritage Foundation.

“U.S. weapons based in space could … patrol the commons for the good of all,” he said.

Other lawmakers, however, expressed support for arms control measures to limit the deployment of weapons in space.

“It should cause us to reconsider whether or not there should be some arms control regimen to restrict these kinds of tests,” said Representative John Spratt (D-S.C.). 

“We probably will have some kind of provision in this year’s defense authorization act, encouraging the administration — imploring the administration” to explore such diplomatic avenues, he said.

U.S. presidents have long resisted international efforts to negotiate space arms control measures at the U.N. Conference on Disarmament in Geneva (see GSN, June 14, 2006; Sebastian Sprenger, Inside the Pentagon, Feb. 1).

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