“ Russia now challenging our space superiority”
What superiority? How long has the ISS been being serviced by Soyuz because the US decided space was hard and expensive?
The commander of the US Space Force (USSF) has warned that America risks losing its dominant position in space, and therefore on Earth too. In a speech yesterday at the Space Foundation's 2024 Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, USSF boss general Chance Saltzman said unprecedented challenges from Russia and China mean that …
While I wouldn't go that far, I did detect a whiff of the equivalent of what in the journalistic trade is called "beat sweetening" (which is puffing up a source in exchange for future "access").
Those cushy after retirement board appointments and consulting gigs don't make themselves you know.
Meanwhile, back at Reality Ranch, one is tempted to be just a wee bit skeptical of putting one's trust in, shall we say, somewhat erratic and capricious billionaires.
Not naming names or anything.
Bankrupt the Chinese with an unwinnable technology race, just like the West bankrupt the Russians starting in the 50s and running through the 70s and well into the 80s.
Note that the Russians still haven't fully recovered, and thus will not be a major player in the game this time around ... the only questions remaining are whether or not the Chinese are stupid enough to fall for it, and whether or not the US has the intestinal fortitude to spend the ungawdly amount of money it will cost.
"with an unwinnable technology race." "the only questions remaining are whether or not the Chinese are stupid enough to fall for it"
No, the question is whether it actually is an unwinnable race and whether or not the US would actually win it. Because right now the US has it's shotgun aimed at it's foot and the finger on the trigger.
It may have escaped your notice but we (the US) bankrupted ourselves at the same time. The difference between Russia and the US today is that we're now literally up to our eyeballs in debt and they're not. We've only been able to maintain that position because our currency is used for global commerce -- we can print it and others effectively pick up the tab. We then weaponized it, forcing others to find ways to avoid using it, a process that won't happen overnight but will demote our currency to 'just another piece of paper'.
Anyway, both Russia and China are quite good and launching stuff into space. The only edge we have is re-usability (thanks, SpaceX) and its only a matter of time before someone else figures it out. (My money's on China.....but I wouldn't count out the Russians just yet).
"The only edge we have is re-usability (thanks, SpaceX) and its only a matter of time before someone else figures it out. (My money's on China.."
Yes, it's worth keeping an eye on what other countries are up to. I note that most of the "big" YouTube channels seem to almost exclusively report on US space adventures with a nod to some of the others. This one shows a lot of what the Chinese are up to. I've seen very little reporting of the Chinese landing a 1st stage similar to SpaceX.
Elon Musk or Jeff Bezos to build satellites capable of taking down other satellites!
Our big defense contractors don't have one individual who is majority owner, so even if the CEO was a loon he couldn't decide to go Dr Evil on us. I mean between the two Bezos already looks like Dr Evil and Musk already acts like him, so I think before anything like this is considered their company has to be publicly traded and no one including but especially them should be allowed to have more than 10% ownership or voting control of the company.
I think what Saltzman is after is a way to prevent Russia/China from disabling US satellites. I do not know what that would look like. Making satellites too dark to been seen with a telescope. Watching the trajectory of antisatellite launches and dodging. Threatening to blow up something in response to a US satellite being damaged. Some other concept.
I think what the US government / millitary really needs is better skills at negotiating and completing contracts. Otherwise they will just get ripped off again either by the usual suspects or the new ones.
It is 100% impossible to prevent someone from disabling a satellite. All you have to do is crash into it and it is out. If you want to disable a lot at once you'd need an EMP which requires a nuke, but "disabling half your active satellites" is going to be seen as an act of war regardless of the method used so you must as well use a nuke on the "in for a penny in for a pound" theory.
And yes, I 100% believe that Russia and the US, and probably China soon if not already, all have nukes in orbit despite treaty commitments or what they claim.
Maybe not. If you just want to pass by a certain point in space, rather than getting into stable orbit, you can probably do it faster from the ground than by trying to move something that is in orbit. You need less energy, so you don't need an orbital rocket to do it. Since you are just needing a ballistic missile, they already have a fleet of them and a distributed launch infrastructure.
There's not really much value in nukes while they are sitting in orbit, so probably better to just leave them on the ground until needed.
Perhaps they will be upgrading the ballistic missiles to specifically target higher orbits like the Glonass and Galileo ones? But then again, since they did the basic experiments on this a couple of decades ago, they probably already have.
Launches of an ICBM are seen by everyone. A satellite could drop off a "package" with a nonreflective coating which could spend hours, days or even months slowly moving toward its objective before it blows up and all anyone knows is a nuke exploded in space. They can't conclusively prove whose it is, though like when an enemy of Putin falls out of a 7th story window it would be pretty easy to guess who is responsible.
Taking down a random satellite is absolutely trivial and it cannot be prevented by technological means.
If you can launch 100kg into orbit with reasonable accuracy then you can take down any satellite you like by just scattering a few thousand ball bearings.
The difficult bit is identifying your target, and that only needs good telescopes.
What stops countries doing it is that triggering Kessler Syndrome would be really bad for everyone, not just the target.
《Our big defense contractors don't have one individual who is majority owner, so even if the CEO was a loon he couldn't decide to go Dr Evil on us. I mean between the two Bezos already looks like Dr Evil and Musk already acts like him, so I think before anything like this is considered their company has to be publicly traded and no one including but especially them should be allowed to have more than 10% ownership or voting control of the company.》
So the US has the loon and Dr Evil - one of each and only needs the Orange One to bind them in dark... (oops wrong franchise. ;)
If having island boltholes and bunkers is a prerequisite then most of the world's billionaires probaby qualify for the loony evil genius ISO-666* tick.
* Rev. 13:18 but no "ISO 666:2012 Machine tools Mounting of grinding wheels by means of hub flanges."
Maybe, and this is just some wild spitballing here, we stop cutting NASA's budget, we stop spending billions on a plane that doesn't work, and refocus the absurd amount of money we spend on defense to defense that is applicable for modern combat arenas instead of relying on self interested billionaires. The billionaire we rely on the most has already shown himself to be willing to listen to Putin and restrict usage of Starlink which resulted in Ukrainian losses. Relying on the Musk to prop up our defenses is a national security risk and the people who are entertaining it should be under close scrutiny if not outright removed.
One possibility that will obviously never be looked at - the US could get off their fucking high horse and assumption that they own everything.
Try to work with other countries instead of threatening anyone and anything they don't like.
Look at CERN - a fantastic multi national operation where politics and religion don't count. How shit would it be if it was located in the US ?
Everyone is entitled to make a living and do the best they can.
Many nations, including the Chinese, are leading on many industries andenvironmental proection despite the twats in power in the US trying to prevent them doing so. Sadly your democrats are no better than the moronic Trump and his republicans in this instance. Would be quite funny if the Chinese asked for their $3.5 trillion loan back.
Will look forwards to the downvotes, threats of violence etc. that is the normal US response on a once great UK site.