NARRATOR: In 1957, the Soviet Union launched the Sputnik-1 satellite into orbit. The world's first spacecraft inspired both the dream of humanity reaching the stars, and the fear that the Soviet military would somehow use outer space to dominate the earth.

Since that time, space technology has become part of our everyday lives. Satellites and other spacecraft have changed the way people communicate, and the way we see the planet. They are bringing humanity closer together, while allowing us to see and explore distant worlds. New space vehicles are being developed today which will transport us further, faster, and more easily into the heavens than ever before.

But along with all of the possibility and promise that has accompanied humanity's journey into space, fear also remains. Space technology is changing the way wars are fought on earth -- and the American military is developing a new generation of weapons that could one day be used in outer space.

Will our future in outer space be one of cooperation, or confrontation? In this episode of America's Defense Monitor, it's a race for the ultimate high ground.

Space Technology

NARRATOR: Like the permanent traces of astronaut Neil Armstrong's walk on the moon, humanity continues to leave its imprint on the heavens. Today, many of the brightest lights in the night sky are the more than 2,000 spacecraft orbiting our planet. These satellites, interplanetary probes, and other spacecraft serve a long and growing list of purposes in our lives on earth.

Satellites provide instant access to worldwide broadcasting and communications. They detect weather patterns, assisting in agriculture and in the early warning of severe storms. They can sense subtle changes in the earth's environment, and the ozone layer which protects it. Imaging satellites give us new ways to see our world, while space probes and telescopes open the doorway to new ones.

Space has also become a big business. Building, launching, using, and maintaining these spacecraft will generate nearly $100 billion in revenue in the year 2000. With an ever-growing number of industries using satellite technology, outer space is fast becoming a vital economic resource.

Over the past 40 years, space technology has also helped the United States military develop a dazzling array of warfighting capabilities.

The same rocket technology used to launch satellites into orbit can be used to wipe out entire populations with nuclear missiles.

The same global positioning system which helps people navigate the seas, highways, and wilderness areas, guided American bombs and missiles to their targets in the Persian Gulf and the former Yugoslavia.

Information from satellite images -- everything from enemy movements to the latest weather conditions -- gives the U.S. military a decisive edge in almost any battle.

PIKE: I think it's increasingly clear that American military space systems are really the thing that's unique about American superpower.

NARRATOR: John Pike is the Director of the Space Policy Project at the Federation of American Scientists, and a leading independent expert on military space programs. According to Pike, it is the ability to use space technology that sets the U.S. military apart.

PIKE: Other countries have airplanes, other countries have nuclear weapons. But the United States is really the only country that has the sort of information dominance that we achieve through our military communications, navigation, weather, and spy satellites.

NARRATOR: Space has become such an important dimension of war, that the U.S. Army, Navy, and Air Force each have their own Space Command. The budget for American military space programs is more than $8 billion per year. But while the United States may be the most visible power in outer space, it is by no means alone.

YAFEI: Our reliance on outer space is growing....

NARRATOR: He Yafei is a senior diplomat at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, DC.

YAFEI: For China, first of all we want to develop ourselves into a modern country. We use satellites a lot. Telecommunication, remote sensing, weather forecasting and meteorology forecasting. And also nowadays, I believe, a lot of scientific experiments are done in outer space. Not to speak of our exploration into the universe. So really, that's a very important area of our economic activities.

NARRATOR: China may see its space program as an economic necessity, but some American political and military leaders see other countries' use of outer space as a potential threat.

PIKE: Well, I think that when the American military looks at all the neat things they can do in space, they are justifiably concerned that maybe somebody else might be able to do those neat things as well.

Space Power

SMITH: Traditionally, in military action, the high ground has always been the best ground…

NARRATOR: Senator Bob Smith of New Hampshire serves on the Senate Armed Services Committee. He is one of Capitol Hill's leading voices for expanding the U.S. military's role in outer space.

SMITH: And as long as you control that high ground, you control the battle. And when you lose the high ground, when they take the hill from you, you lose the fight.

NARRATOR: In 1996, the U.S. Space Command published its “Vision for 2020”. The document applies the military services' traditional roles and missions to the new medium of outer space. In twenty years' time, the military hopes to control outer space, much as the Navy protects shipping lanes and enforces blockades, or as the Air Force controls the skies over today's battlefields.

PIKE: ...For the last four decades, the U.S. Air Force has had a doctrine that they call aerospace power, which proceeds from the assumption that air and space are basically the same thing, only space is a little higher up.... If you think of space as just being an extension of Air power doctrine, then you would think about space the way you do gaining air superiority. Basically, making sure that your airplanes fill the sky and that nobody else's airplanes are out there.

NARRATOR: The Space Command's vision calls for a variety of new weapons to deny the use of outer space to any potential enemy.

SMITH: The truth is, nations now are moving into space, with missiles, with communications technology, with weather satellites. Any of these things could be used for military application.... So we have to have the ability to incapacitate those satellites, and the ability to shoot down anything that goes into space that can harm us...

NARRATOR: Today, the most serious threat from above is an attack by long-range nuclear missiles. Covering thousands of miles in a matter of minutes, the majority of a long-range missile's flight takes place outside the earth's atmosphere.

SMITH: Pick any nation, the Chinese for example, who could fire a missile, and hit the United States, and today we cannot stop that missile.

NARRATOR: In 1999, Congress passed a law requiring the United States to field a national missile defense system “as soon as technologically possible.” The task is proving to be one of the greatest technical challenges the U.S. military has ever faced. But their efforts thus far are providing a glimpse at the weapons of the future.

One program undergoing tests is the National Missile Defense system, or NMD. The system uses interceptor missiles which release a small projectile, known as the “kill vehicle” into outer space, where it smashes into the enemy warhead. This weapon could be ready for service by the year 2005.

But there is already concern that the NMD system could be defeated by missiles using decoys, multiple warheads, or other measures to confuse the kill vehicle.

GEN. KADISH: We cannot assume, and do not plan at this point, that this program will remain static. Because as General Welch points out, if a static defense remains static, there is a point at which it will be overcome.

NARRATOR: Gen. Ronald Kadish is the head of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization, the Pentagon agency responsible for the NMD project. According to the General, NMD will be just one part of a larger, more sophisticated missile defense.

GEN. KADISH: We fully expect that the threat of missile attack from states that threaten international peace and security will evolve over time. And accordingly, we have a follow-on NMD program to meet a larger, more sophisticated threat.

NARRATOR: Part of that “follow-on program” is a family of laser weapons designed for missile defense.

There is the Tactical High Energy Laser, or THEL, a ground-based weapon; the Airborne Laser, which is mounted on a jumbo jet; and the Space-based Laser. In ground tests, the lasers developed for these weapons have pierced metal, and melted the hulls of missiles in less than one second.

While all of these weapons are designed for the purpose of missile defense, each will give the U.S. military new destructive capabilities. In addition to intercepting missiles, any one of them could be used to attack targets in outer space.

If the kill vehicle used in the NMD system can be made to intercept a single warhead -- which is about the size of a man – much larger objects in space, like satellites, could become easy targets.

The laser weapons are also a potential threat to satellites. Because of the intense energy beam, flight tests like this one, where the THEL system shoots down a small rocket over the New Mexico desert, have to be tightly controlled. A stray laser beam from the weapon, or even a reflection of the beam, could damage satellites or blind astronauts in space. If a laser weapon can damage a satellite by accident, then surely it can be used to do so intentionally.

The Space-based Laser is an orbiting weapon, which will be designed to shoot not just missiles, but other spacecraft, and even attack targets on the ground. The program's website features a countdown to the weapon's first flight. If the Space-Based Laser stays on schedule, a shot will be fired in space for the first time ever in the year 2013 -- and the United States will be well on the way to fulfilling its Vision for military control in outer space.

SMITH: Look, the way I look at it, somebody's gonna control space. And it's either gonna be a benevolent nation, like the United States, that will use it to protect itself, not to harm... or it can be an aggressor. And I'd rather have it be the United States than an aggressor who has control.

NARRATOR: But such enthusiasm for American space power is far from universal.

KUCINICH (before audience):Check this out: 2020 Vision means war in space...

NARRATOR: Dennis Kucinich is a Democratic Congressman from Ohio. He is also a member of an international movement to stop the spread of weapons into outer space.

KUCINICH (before audience):The U.S. Space Command intends to control and dominate space. Seize the heavens. The high ground.

KUCINICH: There is a sense of arrogance about this. That somehow we have the power to dominate, not only the globe, but the entire universe.

KUCINICH (before audience): Col. Joseph Ashley, commander of the U.S. Space Command, has been quoted as saying, "We will engage in terrestrial targets someday—ships, airplanes, land targets—from space. We will engage targets in space, from space."

KUCINICH: ...This is madness. And it's time for us to speak out against this madness of hegemony in space.

YAFEI: There is a plan already out which says in 20 years time, the U.S. is going to have land-based weapons to be used in outer space. And also space-based platforms, weapons, weapons systems, lasers, that ...will be a key part of the U.S. strategic forces. With this in mind, other people of course will feel concerned. We feel concerned.

NARRATOR: While the Space Command's stated intention is to protect American interests and investment in outer space, other countries worry that these weapons will be used to increase the United States' military control over the earth, as well as in space.

YAFEI: ...As we know, U.S. ...already has, first of all, superiority in conventional weapons. Most lethal nuclear arsenal. And now, it is well embarked on the road to the control of space.… You see weapons systems floating in the outer space, you feel insecure. Because they could come on to you any time. There is no boundary, so to speak, that prevents that from attacking you. It's very scary. It's very scary.

War in Space?

KUCINICH: There's a Christian prayer called the “Our Father,” which has the words, “thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” We view the sky as the connection to that principle of eternity, to that idea of something transcendent in our lives.

To see the skies, the universe itself, threatened with the prospect of nuclear warfare, in the heavens, it is psychologically challenging, and spiritually punishing ...And it seems as though the projection of fear, of the instrumentalities of violence into outer space, is a threat to all of the aspirations which all of us have. Not only in this country, but on the planet.

NARRATOR: The idea of outer space as a peaceful sanctuary may be rooted in our spiritual beliefs, or in the simple pleasure of gazing at the night sky. It is also expressed in the numerous international treaties which set the ground rules for use of outer space. Since the beginning of the space age, the world community has called upon its members to check their differences at the edge of the earth's atmosphere.

The Outer Space Treaty, adopted in the United Nations in 1967, declared outer space to be the “province of all mankind,” open to all nations, and not subject to ownership by any country.

YAFEI: Outer space covers each and every country. It doesn't belong to one particular country... Outer space is the common property of mankind.

NARRATOR: Space has become a forum for unprecedented international cooperation. As American and Soviet leaders squared off on the earth below, military officers from the two countries met and worked together in outer space. Today, 16 nations are collaborating in building the international space station, a giant orbiting laboratory.

International cooperation in space is more than just positive symbolism. It is a practical necessity. With so much activity in outer space, space launches and satellite deployments have to be carefully planned to avoid damaging other spacecraft.

PIKE: It's evidently the case that space is a very large place, humanity is small, and there have been an awful lot of opportunities for small humanity to cooperate and engage in the very large cosmos. There are a number of international organizations that deal with coordinating communications satellites. Really, you wouldn't be able to do international communications without international cooperation to make sure that the satellites didn't interfere with each other.

NARRATOR: Commercial and government satellites are protected by a number of treaties, and interference with them is strictly forbidden.

YAFEI: Well, why should we shoot down satellites? If they are for weather forecasting, telecommunication, we all rely on them. There is no need to shoot them down. Why should we shoot them down?

NARRATOR: Even the use of spy satellites is protected, as a way to build trust and reduce tensions between world powers. But because of their increasing military value, a gentlemen's agreement to leave satellites alone is not enough to satisfy some of America's leaders.

SMITH: ...you can't deal with what somebody's motives are. You have to deal with what somebody's capabilities are. So, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, I need to understand and be prepared to react to the capability of another nation to inflict damage on us, not the motives.

NARRATOR: As military targets, satellites remain both attractive and vulnerable. And in a world of constant political change, Senator Smith is reluctant to rely on the protocols of another era.

SMITH: Regretfully, we have people, and nations in the world, who do not have positive designs on the United States of America. We have terrorist nations. So with these treaties, I believe that we cannot sit back and say, 'everything's going to be fine, nobody's going to exploit space in a way that could bring harm upon the United States, or, frankly, any other nation in the world.' I don't think we can say that.

YAFEI: I will be honest with you. The situation is just the opposite. It is a situation in which other countries will feel somewhat threatened by a very ambitious, strategic plan to develop space capability by the United States.

NARRATOR: According to He Yafei, it is the United States' plans for space control which threatens the sanctity of outer space, and the balance of power on earth. If the United States deploys space weapons, other powers will feel compelled to respond.

YAFEI: If you want to increase your security, which is absolute security, at the expense of other people's security, saying I have to deploy more weapons, in order to protect my own assets -- which, in a way will be very threatening to others -- the result will be an arms race. Other people will be forced to engage in an arms race.

The Race is On

NARRATOR: China has been leading a diplomatic effort in the United Nations to prevent an arms race in outer space. Since the publication of the Vision for 2020, their work has intensified.

YAFEI: My government is taking the lead in this area. First of all we are asking a strict observance of existing treaties. And then, we are proposing to negotiate – this will be a very difficult, long process, of course we understand that – but we are proposing to negotiate and conclude a new international legal instrument on the subject of outer space.

Basically, we should ban the weapons systems in outer space. That's very clear. And also, we need to, on the other hand, promote or facilitate international cooperation on the peaceful use of outer space.

NARRATOR: In November 1999, the United Nations approved a resolution calling for the “active prevention of an arms race in outer space.”

YAFEI: If we are asking people, “Who is capable of launching wars in outer space?” people will say, “only a few countries.” That's why we are saying, China is saying, let's do something now to prevent the weaponization of outer space. That will take, sort of, you take the carpet out of the whole thing.

NARRATOR: 138 nations voted in favor of the resolution, with zero against. Along with Israel, the United States abstained from the vote, citing the low priority of the issue. According to John Pike, that may not have been a wise decision.

PIKE: Today, the United States controls space, because we have more satellites, better satellites, and they are hooked together more effectively than everybody else put together. I think the United States should give serious thought to a ban on space weapons, because right now, we're the ones that have the most to lose if weapons are developed to attack things in space.

NARRATOR: Congressman Kucinich agrees that a ban on weapons in space is in the United States' best interest.

KUCINICH: It's my belief that the United States must sign on, and send a message to the world that space is for peace, not war. We really need to have our country make a statement about that. And unfortunately, there are policy makers who are aimed at having the country make a statement totally the opposite.

SMITH: We went from covered wagons to Gatling guns and machine guns and planes and bombs and nuclear bombs, and space technology. I mean, it's an evolutionary thing, and you've got to be ahead of the curve. The Chinese, the North Koreans, the Libyans, the Iranians, the Iraqis, they know what it's going to cost them to produce these weapons, and respond to what we are doing. Now, as long as they are realizing that we're committed to do it, maybe they throw in the towel, and we don't have a space race. Because they know they're gonna lose and they're wasting their money. I mean, you just don't waste your money when you know you can't win.

KUCINICH:. We're a country that should be about turning swords into plowshares. Not in fashioning new, technologically superior swords, to hold like swords of Damocles over the populations of the world. We cannot survive as a nation with that approach...

SMITH: Some of the people never want to move to the next level of weapons. I mean, we'd still be back using covered wagons to protect ourselves from Indian attacks, if some of these people had their way.