Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space & Russia Today – 2012-10-10 01:43:46
http://www.amazon.com/PAX-AMERICANA-WEAPONIZATION-SPACE/dp/B003XMKUGQ/
Scaled X-37 Orbital Test Vehicle Drop Tests
NASA
Planned Military Space Plane Launch
Highlights “Keep Space for Peace Week” Concerns
Bruce Gagnon / Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
(October 7, 2012) — The Maine-based Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space, founded in 1992, maintains that an expected October 25 launch of the military space plane (X-37B) from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida will help to accelerate a new arms race in space.
The group also has announced that their annual Keep Space for Peace Week will include more than 75 local actions in a dozen countries around the world. Set from October 6-13 the protests call on all space-faring nations to halt research, development, testing, and deployment of war-making technologies in space.
Global Network chair Dave Webb (who also serves as the chair of UK’s Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament) said, “We believe that the X-37B space plane is part of the Pentagon’s effort to develop the capability to strike anywhere in the world with a conventional warhead in less than an hour — known as Prompt Global Strike.
Thus as the US moves forward with these kinds of global strike systems from and through space it will be likely that Russia and China will be forced to respond by refusing to reduce their nuclear weapons and by developing space technologies of their own to counter the US program.”
The Global Network maintains that the development of these new space planes is one reason that the Obama administration and the Pentagon are eager to reduce nuclear weapons stockpiles in Russia and China in the years to come.
As key elements in the growing US first-strike program (along with so-called ‘missile defense’ systems), they become even more effective if the US can get its potential rivals to reduce their nuclear retaliatory capability giving the Pentagon an even greater chance of pulling off a successful decapitating first-strike attack.
The actual cost of the X-37 is hidden in the Pentagon’s ‘black,’ or classified, budget — is likely to cost more than $1 billion. The launch vehicle alone — a two-stage, liquid-propelled Atlas V rocket — costs as much as $200 million.
“Our annual Keep Space for Peace Week is an important way for us to continue the effort to build a movement around the planet to keep the heavens free from the ever expanding war system. Already we see military satellites in space coordinating warfare on Earth.
The aerospace industry and the Space Command are pushing hard to move new offensive technologies like the X-37B into space. It is our goal to build resistance to these expensive, dangerous, and destabilizing moves,” said Bruce Gagnon, coordinator of the Global Network.
The list of local actions around the world during space week can be found here
The award winning documentary Pax Americana & the Weaponization of Space is now available online here
Global Network Against Weapons & Nuclear Power in Space
PO Box 652
Brunswick, ME 04011
(207) 443-9502
globalnet@mindspring.com
www.space4peace.org
http://space4peace.blogspot.com/ (blog)
US Secret ‘Space Plane’: X-37B Starts Star Wars?
Russia Today
(Apr 22, 2010) — A secret space plane that has been years in the making is now set to launch into the final frontier. The United States Air Force plans to launch the X37B orbital test vehicle tomorrow, to perform a series of tests. Is this the beginning of the United States going above and beyond in space exploration or the beginning of the militarization of space?
Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space
Space4Peace
(February 7, 2012) — The prospect of Earth being ruled from space is no longer science fiction. The dream of the original Dr. Strangelove, Wernher von Braun (from Nazi rocket-scientist to NASA director) has survived every US administration since WW2 and is coming to life. Today the technology exists to weaponize space, a massive American industry thrives, and nations are maneuvering for advantage.
PAX AMERICANA tackles this pivotal moment. Are war machines already orbiting Earth? Can treaties keep space weapons-free? Must the World capitulate to one super-cop on the global beat?
With startling archival footage and unprecedented access to US Air Force Space Command, this elegant, forceful documentary reveals the state of play through generals, space-policy analysts, politicians, diplomats, peace activists, and hawks.
As if there weren’t enough weapons here on earth, space has become the newest arena for countries around the globe to launch their struggle for supremacy. Denis Delestrac’s film, Pax Americana and the Weaponization of Space, is packed full of some truly startling facts — everything from the “Rods of God” (space weapons that can launch from orbit) to the fact that fifty cents of every American tax dollar goes towards military spending.
The astronomical costs of arming and policing the heavens (more than $200 billion) has largely fallen to the US Air Force, but with China and other nations challenging American supremacy, there is the potential for a war to take place right over our heads.
Comparison of the space race to the sea battles of the 18th and 19th Century are apt, since so many global interests are at stake. As per usual, economics are at the heart of the struggle. Noam Chomsky draws analogies between the US weaponization of space to good old-fashioned colonialism in the tradition of empire. In the name of protecting commercial investment, the US has charged itself with being the arbiter of peace in space.
But with the weapons industry replacing almost all other manufacturing in America, is this simply a ruse? Many experts unequivocally state that missile defense is the longest running fraud in the history of US defense. That it, in fact, disguises true American intentions to dominate space as a means of dominating the entire globe. (Getting rid of the anti-ballistic missile treaty was one of the first activities undertaken by the Bush Administration.)
If a space war were to happen, the effects could prove catastrophic. Since there is no way to clean up debris and space junk, it stays in orbit, circling the globe at some 14,000 miles per hour. At this speed, even a pea-sized piece of debris has the capacity to destroy whatever is in its path.
This includes satellites that regulate most of the world’s information systems (everything from GPS to banking to media). But with China shooting down one of their own aging satellites, the race shows every sign of heating up. This time, the sky may indeed be falling.
> big>See also
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pax_Americana_and_the_Weaponization_of_Space
