The United States Faces Security Challenges

Now that after America and the Soviet Union where both partaking in the space race they both had suspicions about each other. Eisenhower, on the other hand, saw satellites as “pointless unless they provided something useful back on Earth” (DeGroot 5). “ A spy satellite, on the other hand, could provide accurate pictures of Soviet military capabilities, thus enabling the United States to spend its defense budget wisely, without wasting huge sums on challenging phantom forces” (DeGroot 5). America was worried about the Soviets spying on America because of security issues so America wanted to pursue on building themselves a satellite to “provide accurate pictures of Soviet military capabilities” (DeGroot 5). The only problem was that “ Flying over another nation’s territory without permission was, however, illegal under international law. What was not clear was whether the law applied to satellites” (DeGroot 5). America and the Soviets were in a battle to see which world power could be the best. The

In the past 50 years, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) has sent out many planned space exploration missions which have lead to numerous advantages in society and culture. NASA’s technologies benefit American lives with the innumerable important breakthroughs by creating new markets that have spurred the economy and changed countless lives in many ways. NASA is a federal agency and receives its fundings from the annual federal budget passed by the United States Congress. However, there are conflicting opinions that consider whether or not funding for NASA is a waste of government spending.

In addition to initiating a space race between the two current superpowers, the Sputnik spacecraft launch also had alarming military implications. The Sputnik satellites used intercontinental ballistic missiles that were initially used for their thrust capabilities but could theatrically be capable of flying from the Soviet Union to United States military targets in less than an hour—cutting the flight time to a fraction of a conventional bomber aircraft. In response to the launch of Sputnik, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act of 1958. The act created the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) . To prevent the rise of Soviet dominance in military matters, Eisenhower also established the Advanced Research Projects Agency, a division of the U.S. Department of Defense. This was symbolic of a serious revelation of the standing of the scientific and technological capabilities of America in comparison to other countries, and also led to President Eisenhower issuing a proclamation to increase funding for education in America in science and engineering to combat this widening deficit. The quick Soviet lead in the newly emerging space race caused much panic, which shaped American foreign policy for the following decade(Document E). An example is avoiding “an all-out war with China” for fear of having to combat communism on two fronts.(Document

With the threat of Congress cutting NASA 's budget, the United State 's sixty year preeminence in space exploration is in serious peril..

NASA is a key player in our technological growth. It leads in innovating technology development in both public and private industries across the board from aviation to zoology. In add-on, increasing the space program funding may increase our defense. As it will be exceedingly important that America innovates its space program for defense, from telecommunication to aviation. Likewise, what if an asteroid comes in our proximity and threatens our existence?, we ought to have something

The Cold War was an all-encompassing face of the 20th century, world politics, and a major idea during this time was domination of the skies. The United States competed against The Soviet Union in a war unlike any other, they didn’t fight with guns, bombs, or war machines but with science and the battlefield was space. The prioritization of the space race on the national agenda was characterized by an urgency, which underscored the commitment to the U.S. to defeat the Soviet Union by all means necessary. This came at the cost of billions of dollars, resources, lives, and political forces.

The Space Race is a pivotal part of the Cold War’s history. During the ending of World War II, both the United States and the Soviet Union initiated a military, political, and technological supremacy battle. There was no physical fighting, instead both superpowers competed through space exploration. Between 1957-1969 the United States and the Soviet Union battled to overcome and take control over space which led to tensions alleviating in the 1970’s causing the pressure and necessity to decrease resulting in both superpowers collaborating in many tasks. Many of the technology that dealt with space exploration began with military affiliations. The

The American Institute for Aeronautics and Astronautics is an organization for the protection of governmental space programs and the use of aerospace science and engineering. They function as an interest group, influencing the government to pass laws and put policies in place that benefit their needs. Their mission is “to inspire and advance the future of aerospace for the benefit of humanity, to address the professional needs and interests of the past, current, and future aerospace workforce and to advance the state of aerospace science, engineering, technology, operations, and policy to benefit our global society”. The AIAA’s members support many different space-related programs and causes, including strategic missile defense programs,

The Cold War was a new conflict that began to rise after the horrific and globally destructive World War II in the mid-20th century between two powerful countries, the democratic United States of America and the communist government of the Soviet Union. Both countries highlighted its superiority through a thriving threat of nuclear weapons and wide-ranging espionage and counter-espionage between the two countries. In the 1950’s, space became the platform for the competition of supremacy to validate each country’s dominance in innovative technology, military firepower, and political-economic system. Space was seen by David Beers, in the book Blue Sky Dream: A memoir of America’s Fall from Grace, as the next frontier which was a logical extension of the grand American tradition of exploration. The rise of the aerospace industry became the icon of national reputation and a dream for the blue sky tribe, who benefitted from the space race, which then later on led to disappointment and betrayal in the 1990s.

Thirtythree years ago President Ronald Reagan issued an astonishing reversal of America’s national security strategy. Rather than basing American security on the presumption that an attack by one superpower on the other would result in the unleashing of a catastrophic retaliatory strike, Reagan committed the United States to pursuing a strategy of defending against offensive missiles. The plan he set to action was the Strategic Defense Initiative(SDI) or “The Star Wars Plan.” This was a system of base ground units and orbital deployment platforms.

“Even before the first satellite was launched, U.S. leaders recognized that the ability to observe military activities around the world from space would be an asset to national security… Intelligence-gathering satellites have been used to verify arms-control agreements, provide warnings of military threats, and identify targets during military operations, among other uses” (Space Exploration). During an age when nuclear threats loomed upon both the U.S. and the USSR with frightening reality, it was crucial for intelligence agencies of both nations to gather as much information as possible about the other’s missile programs and operations. This created the demand for orbiting satellites that would send back crucial information. Another benefit of orbital satellite reconnaissance was the low risk involved. In 1960, an American U-2 spy plane flying over the Soviet Union on a reconnaissance mission was shot down by the Soviets. “The Soviets managed to shoot down Powers's U-2 and capture the American pilot” (U-2 Affair). The pilot was imprisoned, CIA operations were revealed, and the U.S. was under a huge international embarrassment. Launching satellites does not risk losing human lives, leaking secret information, or losing national integrity during unexpected occasions such as the U-2

The Cold War was a period where there was a lot of tension between the U.S. and Russia, with both sides harboring feelings of suspicion and even disgust for the other. However, terrible Russian-American relations and the possible catastrophic destruction of nuclear war was not the only thing the Cold War promoted. One of the effects of the Cold War was fierce competition in a lot of areas, such as maintaining influence in third world countries and, of course, the Space Race. As a result of this rivalry between Russia and the United States in supremacy in spaceflight capability, the American culture was dramatically changed in several ways such as the fact that Americans now perceive themselves to be the world’s leading super

Jim Sciutto conducted a 1-hr documentary on the inevitable war in space. Sciutto interviewed more than ten national security, defense and high-ranking military personnel to include the entire chain of command for space warfare. Sciutto explains that American (citizens, military, and government) depends on our satellites every day. However, our adversaries are targeting America's satellites and are preparing to disarm America from her satellites usage with weapon systems such as lasers, kamikaze satellites, and even kidnapper satellites.

In addition, the space situational awareness is becoming more crucial to the U.S. government and the DoD. Current policies focus on utilizing coalition partners to assist in space situational awareness (Government U. S.,

The intent of this brief analysis is to consider whether “command” as described by Italian General Giulio Douhet and British military historian and theorist Sir Julian Stafford Corbett can be applied to the space domain. The original air domain commanded by the Air Force has evolved to include space and cyberspace domains. Space domain includes, “…precise position, navigation and timing (PNT); communications; weather data; missile warning; and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR).”1 Clearly, within the space domain lies command of communications for all military domains (land, sea, air, space, and cyberspace). In fact, vulnerabilities in the space domain could weaken the American people by interrupting basic daily needs