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Tell Your Senators: No Space
Weapons
 For
nearly a half-century, the peaceful use of
space has yielded immense benefits to humans
worldwide. Now, the Bush administration is
requesting funding for a program that would,
for the first time, set the United States on a
path of placing weapons in space. This program
is dangerous since it would encourage other
countries to develop similar space weapons,
which could be used to attack satellites. As
soon as next week, the U.S. Senate could begin
considering the annual defense bills that will
determine whether to fund this program.
Write to your
senators immediately, urging them to oppose
putting weapons in space and oppose funding for
this
program.
Sincerely,
Sean Meyer
National Field
Organizer
UCS Global Security
Program
Subject: Oppose Space
Test Bed and Deploying Space
Weapons
Dear
Senator,
I strongly oppose putting
weapons in space. During consideration of the
annual defense authorization and defense
appropriations bills, I urge you to oppose any
funding for the missile defense Space Test Bed.
Please also take the opportunity to speak out
forcefully against the weaponization of
space.
The Space Test Bed would
put dedicated space-based weapons in orbit for
the first time. These weapons, however, would
not provide an effective defense against
missiles since they could be attacked from the
ground or the system could be easily
overwhelmed.
These space-based weapons
would be more useful for attacking satellites
than for missile defense. The program could
therefore encourage other countries to develop
similar anti-satellite weapons capabilities.
Instead of defending our safety, this system
could put at risk critical satellites used for
communications, weather forecasting, and other
global needs—both civil and
military.
Recently, both the United
States and China have used missiles to destroy
their own satellites. Now is the critical time
for the United States, which owns more than
half the satellites in space, to take the lead
in international efforts to keep satellites
safe. The best course of action is for the
United States to work with other nations to
prohibit the deployment of space weapons and
destructive attacks on satellites, not to lead
the way to weaponizing
space.
Please oppose
attempts to include or add funding for the
Space Test Bed in either of the defense
bills.
Sincerely,
Your
signature
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What's At
Stake:
The Bush administration is
requesting $10 million in funding in fiscal
year 2009 (FY09) for a Space Test Bed as part
of its effort to develop a space-based missile
defense system. The program would begin the
process of putting weapons in space for the
first time and would therefore have important
and dangerous long-term implications.
In the coming
weeks, the U.S. Senate is expected to consider
both the FY 09 defense authorization and
defense appropriations bills—the bills that
will set policy and funding levels for
Department of Defense programs, including
missile defense. Last year, Congress rejected
funding for the Space Test Bed. This year, UCS
is concerned that several influential senators
have expressed a greater willingness to fund
space weapons and anti-satellite (ASAT)
programs, on the mistaken assumption that the
United States can effectively “defend” its
satellites using weapons and that other
countries, namely China, are rushing to deploy
space weapons.
The publicly stated
intent of the Space Test Bed program is to
develop space-based missile interceptors; to
create the command, control, battle management
and communications structures for space-based
missile defense; and to launch interceptors
into orbit and test them against ballistic
missiles. Not only would the program break the
international “taboo” against weapons in space,
the interceptors would not provide an effective
defense, despite the enormous cost of deploying
such a system. More... |
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