Free Republic

China is fast gaining military advantage in space, completing fifty orbital launches this year, ahead of the US, which carried out forty-three. LeoLabs Australia’s Managing Director Terry van Haren says China is “outpacing” the rest of the world in deploying military hardware into space. “There are many purposes in many respects; we got the earth observation purpose,” Mr van Haren told Sky News Australia. He said there are a “whole bunch of very suspicious activities” which is also going on in space at the moment, such as the recent launch of SJ-21, which was claimed by China to be an...

By 2030, Russia will send robots to the Moon to collect samples. The program will be punctuated with a manned Moon landing — 60 years after Neil Armstrong’s Apollo mission. Payback, perhaps, for losing out on the major leg of the U.S. and Soviet space race. The optimistic program also lays out plans for active exploration of other planets in the solar system, and ideas for a follow-up to the International Space Station: The ISS is only funded until 2020.

U.S. Military, Commercial Space Assets Vulnerable To Attack: Experts Defense Daily 06/22/2006 Author: Dave Ahearn U.S. military and commercial satellites, long seen as above the fray and out of harm's way, are vulnerable to multiple types of attack, an assault that a determined enemy someday will attempt. So said military, government, industry and think tank experts testifying yesterday before the House Armed Services Committee strategic forces subcommittee. Defending against such an attack in the long-peaceful realm of space can be accomplished, but at a price: military, government and commercial satellite owners would have to provide more money to companies making...

WASHINGTON - Democrats are trying to gain the edge in the race for lobbying ethics reform with a package of measures to bar members of Congress from accepting gifts, meals and travel from lobbyists. House and Senate Democratic leaders are to outline their approach to cleaning up the tainted relationship between lawmakers and lobbyists on Wednesday, a day after House Republican leaders announced that lobbying reform had moved to the top of their legislative priorities. The battle to gain the ethical high ground comes amid the election-year scandal resulting from the activities of former lobbyist Jack Abramoff, who personally or...