SPACEFARERS take note: an attack on the spacecraft of one nation is an attack on all spacecraft.
That's the message the US National Security Space Strategy is using to promote peace in space. Published last week, the NSSS report is the first time that the US military and intelligence community have agreed on an approach to the threat posed by space weapons.
Many nations rely on GPS and communications satellites, but these are vulnerable to damage if another spacecraft is attacked. For example, satellites are still at risk from the thousands of shards that were produced when a Chinese missile destroyed a weather satellite in 2007.
So the US intelligence agencies and the Pentagon will "encourage other countries to act responsibly in space", says Gregory Schulte, US deputy secretary of defence for space policy. ...
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