Many news sites and bloggers are commenting on the new space policy signed by President Bush. Essentially, the controversial part is the policy moves us from a general statement that space should be free to a specific statement that the USA reserves the right to deny access to space to hostile powers, and that any attempt to deny us access to space will not be tolerated.
I am of two minds about this. On the one hand, this change in policy was inevitable. Space is ultimately just another frontier, another means of passage. It is no different from the sea, except that there is a whole lot more of it. Eventually, nations will have to compete for access to space, and for the rights to harvest resources from it. The first nation to establish a lunar colony will immediately try to lay claim to the whole place. Welcome back to the Imperial Age.
On the other hand, it has been a good thing that we have held off from recognizing this inevitability as long as we have. It has kept nations from being forced to address the issue, and possibly go to war over patches of airless expanse. Now that this has been put into words, other nations are going to have to assert a similar right. And how long until some nation asserts exclusive rights to all of orbit, and attempts to militarily enforce that right? The way things are going with North Korea, it may happen sooner than you expect.
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