Remembering the Space Age. - Black Vault Radio Network (BVRN)

128 reMeMBerING the SpaCe aGe
positioned defensive weapons on the ground until their use in space to “kill”
enemy satellites. another new direction taken by military space policy was the
idea that, instead of protecting just the country’s military defenses—as had
been the case of earlier space weaponry—SDI would protect the entire
population, both military and civilian. the frst ground-based aSat systems,
which dated back to 1958, 20 involved launching a killer satellite atop a booster
rocket to match the orbit of the target, then track it and detonate the killer
satellite near the target. aSat was not a designation for a single weapon system,
but rather a generic term covering anything that could be used to attack, disable,
or destroy a satellite from earth or (in the case of SDI) from space. the 1972
anti-Ballistic Missile (aBM) treaty did not ban aSat systems as neither side
wanted to give up a space weapon that both sides were developing.
after a hiatus resulting from a combination of budgetary, political, and
technical factors, the Soviet Union resumed aSat testing in February 1976. 21
the resumption of testing galvanized the Ford administration into authorizing the
development of an aSat system,and president Jimmy Carter continued the aSat
project while seeking to revive existing arms control negotiations. 22 the U.S. and
the Soviet Union once more were engaged in a space race with the Soviet Union
again in the lead. SDI functioned as a continuation of this space race.
part of the concern over the Soviet anti-satellite program was that country’s
progress in developing directed energy weapons using lasers and particle beams,
which potentially could serve to arm aSat weapons. 23 the United States was
not without its own particle-beam and laser weapon research, which started
under arpa’s project Defender virtually from the time of the agency’s creation.
Laser weapons received increased interest following the invention of the gasdynamic
laser in the late 1960s. 24
these developments in laser weapons and antiballistic missile systems,
critics of MaD, and opponents of the 1972 aBM treaty all came together under
the rubric of SDI. according to historian Donald Baucom, the frst appearance
of the space-based battle station concept in the open literature was in a 1978
issue of Aviation Week. 25 the most likely source was Lockheed Corporation’s
20. paul B. Stares, The Militarization of Space: U.S. Policy, 1945-1984 (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University
press, 1985), pp. 107, 109-110, 117-131, 135-136 & 145-146.
21. Stares, pp. 107, 109-110, 117-131, 135-136 & 145-146.
22. pratt, 53; Donald r. Baucom, The Origins of SDI, 1944-1983 (Lawrence, KS: University press of
Kansas, 1992), p. 76.
23. Clarence a. robinson, Jr., “Soviets push for Beam Weapon,” Aviation Week & Space Technology
106, 18 (May 2, 1977): 16-23.
24. J. London and h. pike, “Fire in the Sky: U.S. Space Laser Development from 1968,” Iaa-97­
Iaa.2.3.06, pp. 1-3, paper read at the 48th International astronautical Congress, October 6-10,
1997, turin, photocopy, folder 40, box 2, X-33 archive; pratt, 16-18; Baucom, 15-17.
25. robinson, 42-43, 45, 48-49, 51-52; Baucom, 118.