OF SPECIAL INTEREST

OF SPECIAL INTEREST NEWS

U.S. Weapons in Space

The official policy of the USA and Russia has for years been that Space-based WMD systems were not to be built and not to be launched. 

There was some speculation that at least some active military hardware was aloft, a canon aboard a Russian Space Station and capsule-capturing satellites a la James Bond, but the official word was “no.” Both USA and Russia were officially operating under the 1967 Outer Space Treaty, which forbade placing WMDs in Earth orbit and banned military bases, weapons testing, and military maneuvers on the Moon or any other celestial body. The Treaty did not prohibit conventional weapons in Earth orbit. 

In fact, the use of Earth orbit for military reconnaissance was a key part of the “Trust, but Verify” policy that kept the peace for decades. The three major powers have demonstrated ASAT capability, but that technology, especially in crowded LEO, could hurt the attacker as much as the attacked (although a rouge player could use ASAT as a denial-of-service attack on potential adversaries who were more technologically-advanced).

China and Russia have demonstrated technology that indicate their desire to have a counter-space operations capability, which has prompted the USA to take a more aggressive stance.

“The U.S. Space Force’s top civilian and military leaders, including Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. Douglass Schiess, were united in acknowledging space-based weapons at a recent trade conference in National Harbor, Maryland. 

“The U.S. has moved from hinting at its ability to fight in space to acknowledging that it has weapons in orbit, a shift that senior military leaders say is intended to make deterrence more explicit as China and Russia expand their counterspace capabilities.

“’Today, we continue to ensure we remain ready to meet the challenges of evolving threats wherever they exist,’ Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said in a keynote speech Sept. 14 at the Air & Space Forces Association’s annual Air, Space and Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Maryland. ‘This is why the United States now has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against hostile adversary action.’”

“Gen. Douglas Schiess, who became the Space Force’s third chief of space operations on Sept. 3, reinforced Meink’s message in his own keynote speech Sept. 15, stating: ‘Today, Guardians operate on-orbit weapons that can defend the joint force against space-enabled attacks’

“The message, Schiess told reporters later at the conference, was intended to signal deterrence to China, which has demonstrated the ability to dock with another satellite and move it to a different orbit, and Russia, which the U.S. has accused of developing ‘nesting doll’ satellites that could conceal some type of orbital weapon.”

For more on this important topic, see the source of the material quoted above here: https://aviationweek.com/defense/missile-defense-weapons/us-puts-its-orbital-weapons-record.

NASA and the Earth’s Center of Mass

The Earth’s center of mass moves VERY slightly during a year, due to annual ocean and ice movement and other minor things. We’re talking a few tenths of inches at most, but that is significant because the CM is a “crucial reference point for satellite navigation and elevation measurements. NASA scientists have figured out a way to measure the CM’s location with the necessary precision. Find out more about it at: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/nasa-watches-earths-weight-finds-center-of-mass.

Solar Eclipse 2026 Was Spectacular!

I had the pleasure of serving as one of the Subject Matter Experts for one of the sections offered by Smithsonian Journeys for the Spain total solar eclipse. The trip was great; we visited Madrid, Avila, and Segovia, with the eclipse in between. The weather was good, and we had great support from the local astronomy clubs. The diamond ring at second contact was wonderful, and the appearance of a large prominence on the Sun’s limb at third contact really made this eclipse special. It wasn’t a diamond ring, it was a ruby ring! See for yourself here: https://ecp.earthsky.org/community-photos/entry/84554.

Wait Until Next Year and the Year After That!

We are fortunate to have a number of good eclipses coming up in the next few years. The longest eclipse in our lifetime crosses Egypt next year on August 2, with both Luxor and Valley of the Kings in the totality zone. Trips have been in the planning stage for years for this one, and most trips are wait-listed, but try and maybe you’ll get a lucky cancellation from someone. The next one after that is on July 22, 2028, and will slash across Australia and the South Island of New Zealand. Many tours are offered, including with Smithsonian Journeys (I’ll be the SME for their “Sally Ride” group in Sydney), and you should be able to find one available, if you act soon.

For information on upcoming total solar eclipses through 2040, see: https://eclipse.gsfc.nasa.gov/SEatlas/SEatlas3/SEatlas2021.GIF.

OF SPECIAL INTEREST FYI

The Danger of Putting All Our Satellites “In One Basket”

Huge constellations of satellites in/near LEO are not just the bane of ground-based astronomers, they also are imprudently dangerous. But don’t just take my word for it…

“In August 1962, British instrumental band The Tornados released a song inspired by the just-launched Telstar 1 satellite. The 170-lb. spacecraft revolutionized communications, broadcasting the first images across the Atlantic and connecting televisions, fax machines, telephones and two computers in Europe and America.

“The revolution was ill-fated. Telstar’s launch in July came as a Thor intermediate-range ballistic missile lofted a W49 warhead for the U.S. Starfish Prime high-altitude nuclear test. It pumped the Van Allen belts with radiation that fried Telstar’s circuits. The lesson: Unshielded satellites are vulnerable to the lingering effects of nuclear detonations in space.

“Months later, as The Tornados’ Telstar tune was topping the UK charts, President John F. Kennedy revealed to the world that the Soviets had deployed nuclear weapons in Cuba. In the burst of treaty-making following the Cuban Missile Crisis, the U.S. and the Soviet Union agreed to prohibit nuclear weapons from two areas to complement previously enjoined Antarctica: the seabed and outer space. This consensus not to place nuclear weapons in orbit was fraught, however. Debates about missile defense continued in the U.S., and Moscow kept up planning to defeat such defenses.

“That fragile consensus is again under strain following a post-Cold War respite. Moscow is exploring ways to destroy large satellite constellations it sees as critical to its adversaries.”

And not just Moscow, or China, or whoever; even a few large fragmentation explosives could trigger a Kessler Syndrome…

For more on the quoted material above, see: https://aviationweek.com/space/satellites/opinion-golden-dome-revives-nuclear-anti-satellite-weapons-concerns.

Upper Atmosphere Pollution is a Growing Problem!

Rocket exhaust (especially that produced by kerosene-based fuels) produces soot particles and other pollutants that have a decades-long residence time in the upper atmosphere. Further, satellites coming back to Earth also disintegrate into undesirable pollutants that also remain aloft for years. This wasn’t a big problem “back in the day” because flights and reentries were relatively infrequent, but with the advent of multiple mega-constellations of satellites the problem is increasingly severe. It’s another aspect of the unsupervised conducting of an uncontrolled experiment in the only “Petri Dish” in which humans can live.

For more information on this topic, check out the following: https://aas.org/about/governance/society-resolutions/atmospheric-impacts-spacecraft; https://www.ucl.ac.uk/news/2026/may/satellite-launch-pollution-rapidly-accumulating-upper-atmosphere; https://www.datacenterdynamics.com/en/analysis/a-new-threat-for-satellites-can-orbital-re-entry-pollution-threaten-our-atmosphere ; https://aerospaceglobalnews.com/news/space-debris-dead-satellites-atmosphere-pollution; and https://spacenews.com/uncontrolled-experiment-study-links-harmful-atmospheric-metals-to-spacecraft-reentry.

Space Debris Follow-Ups

A previous Item of the Week about Arthur C. Clarke and Geosynchronous Orbits, had a section about the growing danger of Space Debris. Famed Space author, Leonard David, has a new space.com piece on the debris topic that may be of interest to you. See: https://www.space.com/space-exploration/launches-spacecraft/space-debris-led-to-an-orbital-emergency-in-2025-will-anything-change.

I ran across another orbital debris-related piece, this one in the Cardinal News, in Virginia. It’s by Jack Kennedy (not the senator from Louisiana), whose background includes graduation from the University of North Dakota’s Space Studies program, a former employer of mine. His piece is entitled, “The next Nobel: Why the U.S. must lead space diplomacy.” You can find it here: https://cardinalnews.org/2025/09/03/the-next-nobel-why-the-u-s-must-lead-space-diplomacy.

A similar interesting piece, by Tanner Stening, can be found on the Northeast Global News page, here: https://news.northeastern.edu/2025/03/11/space-leadership-united-states.

But Wait, There’s More info on mitigating the problem of space debris! It involves “a circular space economy, a model in which materials and equipment are created with reuse, repair, and recycling in mind. They also note that industries such as personal electronics and automotive manufacturing have already adopted similar ideas with considerable success.” See more about it at: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2025/12/251203010211.htm.

AVIATION WEEK PODCASTS OF NOTE: Follow Up

Last month, the Aviation Week website had several items relating to the present events in the Iran Crisis, including: “What’s Under the Ever-More Expensive Golden Dome,” “A Stress Test for Aging Aircraft,” and “The Impact of the Iran War on Airlines.” I will focus here on two other items: the podcast entitled “High-Energy Laser Weapons Reach New Heights “and an article entitled, “Debrief: China’s New Laser Focus to Take Down Satellite Networks.”

Recently, Aviation Week posted a follow-up regarding the Golden Dome, questioning the feasibility of using Space-based interceptors. 

Lasers: Laser weapons/defenses have long been under study, especially so since the High Energy Laser Scaling Initiative began in 2018. Recent advances, now being deployed in the Iran Crisis, are providing operational tactical testing. Present capabilities are useful against balloons and small drones, but research into scaling-up laser technology will soon allow targeting of faster targets, such as cruise and ballistic missiles. A 300kW laser system is presently in operation, and a 500kW system is under development by Lockheed Martin and should be ready soon. Meanwhile, a 1MW laser system is in the works. All of these systems are intended for defense against arial attacks. The AW podcast also stresses China’s interest in laser technology for aerial defense, and notes that powerful laser systems may also find use in the mitigation of orbital debris.

Anti-satellite: Of course, if ground-based or space-based laser systems can shoot down debris, they can shoot down other satellites. Space debris is already a major problem, and could be used by a weaker adversary to disable an opponent’s space-based assets via a “denial of service” attack where a number of dirty bombs are exploded in LEO to cause a Kessler Syndrome. A nation with considerable LEO military assets of their own would not do that, but high-powered space-based laser system(s) could make a more surgical attack possible. Quoting from the Debrief piece in AW:

“Over the past decade, U.S. military space planners and commercial space companies have largely reached consensus on the “resiliency” of building networks comprised of numerous small satellites, rather than a handful of high-value satellites.

“If a potential adversary must now target hundreds of relatively inexpensive platforms with a high-cost anti-satellite weapon launched from the ground or an aircraft, that attack now becomes more inefficient and costly, the argument goes. That thesis has driven government and commercial operators around the globe to invest in new networks in low Earth orbit (LEO) for mission areas including data connectivity, missile warning and tracking, geospatial intelligence and alternate positioning, navigation and timing.

“Now, China is looking to use directed energy to target multiple satellites simultaneously. In February, the South China Morning Post reported that scientists at the Northwest Institute of Nuclear Technology in Xian, Shaanxi province, have developed a high-power microwave weapon called the TPG1000Cs—a compact device capable of delivering 20 gigawatts of power for one full minute from the back of a truck or while mounted on an aircraft.

“Such a device could send pulses out to space to hit multiple systems at once, causing glitches or loss of control, U.S. military leaders have said. Suddenly, the cost curve to target space assets looks more feasible.”

SpaceX Files Plans with FCC for One-million Satellite Data Center in LEO

“SpaceX is seeking Federal Communications Commission approval for a satellite constellation of unprecedented scale intended to function as an orbital data center.

“In a filing with the FCC late Jan. 30, SpaceX proposed an orbital data center constellation of up to one million satellites in low Earth orbit. The satellites would operate at altitudes between 500 and 2,000 kilometers, in 30-degree and sun-synchronous inclinations, to maximize time in sunlight for solar power generation.

“A constellation of one million satellites would far exceed any system seriously considered. China filed plans with the International Telecommunication Union in late December for two constellations totaling nearly 200,000 satellites. In 2021, Rwanda filed ITU plans for constellations exceeding 300,000 satellites, linked to proposals by startup E-Space, which no longer appears to be pursuing such a system.”

The announcement does not address issues such as orbit management, the impact on ground-based astronomy, the environmental effects of deorbiting satellites, or space debris management. For the full quotes and more news on this topic, see: https://spacenews.com/spacex-files-plans-for-million-satellite-orbital-data-center-constellation.

FOLLOW UP: The July 2026 issue of Sky and Telescope magazine has a news item about the one-million satellites proposal, on page 11.

NOT NERVOUS YET? The see: https://arxiv.org/pdf/2512.09643!

MORE? The dangers of the Kessler Syndrome happening by accidents are serious. What if a conflict develops where satellites are purposely targeted in LEO as a High Frontier version of a “denial of service” calamity…

China Expands Military Space Capabilities

Aviation Week’s Military Space Editor Vivienne Machi posted an article recently on this important topic, here: https://aviationweek.com/space/budget-policy-regulation/hide-seek-orbit-china-expands-military-space-capabilities. And although it isn’t a direct military threat, she notes that China plans to launch a constellation of over 200,000 satellites to LEO… And the FCC just authorized SpaceX to make an expansion of its Starlink system. [Why am I having an Olber’s Paradox flash-back?]

OF SPECIAL INTEREST LINKS AND OTHER INFORMATION

“How the U.S. Space Force Aims to Avoid a Second Sputnik Moment” is an interesting piece by Vivienne Machi, the Military Space Editor for Aviation Week. See it here: https://aviationweek.com/space/budget-policy-regulation/how-us-space-force-aims-avoid-second-sputnik-moment.

For Those of You in the Colorado Springs Area: The Space Foundation Discovery Center on Garden of the Gods Avenue has undergone a significant expansion and updating. Find out more about it at: https://discoverspace.org and more about the Space Foundation at: https://www.spacefoundation.org. In addition, the Planetarium at the U.S. Air Force Academy offers a variety of public programs; for more information, see: https://www.usafa.edu/facilities/planetarium. But be advised that the Academy has new stringent requirements to enter. The Academy also has great STEM outreach programming for students and teachers, see: https://www.usafa.edu/research/stem-outreach.

Jack Cross: I have met an interesting fellow on-line via one of NASM’s wonderful Docents. His name is Jack Cross, and he proudly served in the U.S. Navy from 1950 to 1954 as a Bosun’s Mate. He was on a series of warships at first, then he moved over to the USS Yellowstone, a tender that served the Navy’s Sixth Fleet. He joined the Navy and saw the world! 

Now retired, Jack has put together a series of picture-rich PowerPoint presentations. He kindly gave me permission to post three of them already, one about D-Day, one about “A Day of Mercy in the Sky,” and one about his Navy career, which gives a real interesting look at what Navy life was like at the start of the Cold War. Check all three out on the Archive: Other Stuff page of the website! Thank you, Jack!

DOCENTS (and all others interested in Solar System exploration history): If you don’t have an on-line copy of Fordham University’s Asif A. Siddiqi’s fabulous book, Beyond Earth: A Chronicle of Deep Space Exploration, you should. You can find it at: https://www.nasa.gov/connect/ebooks/beyond_earth_detail.html.