With the announcement of first on-orbit space weapon, USA has taken a dangerous step towards Space Warfare

The growing extension of superpower rivalry for dominance of outer space can relate to economic, technological, and military aspects. Ultimately, this may lead not only to new kinds of space pollution but also to very big disasters.

The extent to which private corporations are being given a significant role in the space race, particularly by the USA, makes a mockery of the great sense of responsibility and careful regulations needed in all developments relating to human activity in outer space. Private corporations may act in entirely profit-motivated, narrow ways, and in the process, wider responsibilities and concerns may see serious violations.

Although direct space warfare has not taken place so far, the militarization of space has been increasing at several levels to such an extent that the possibility of space warfare becoming a reality is now quite high.

Space warfare can take place in several forms. One object placed in space can attack, destroy, damage, or disable another object placed in space by another country. A missile from Earth can destroy a satellite of another country in space. Or a weapon from space can destroy a target on Earth. One such hostile act is likely to lead to one or more hostile acts by the affected party (if the capacity for retaliation exists), and from here on, the situation can escalate with unknown implications and results too frightening to comprehend.

These possibilities of warfare will increase as rival powers try to catch up with the present day dominance of space presence and technology by the USA. A review of space warfare possibilities published in the Scientific American by Lee Billings said, “As China and Russia aggressively seek to challenge US superiority in space with ambitious military space programs of their own, the power struggle risks sparking a conflict that could cripple the entire planet’s space-based infrastructure. And though it might begin in space, such a conflict could easily ignite full-blown war on Earth.”

The biggest danger will no doubt come if nuclear weapons are taken to space or used in space. This is of course strongly prohibited by the Outer Space Treaty, but still, the risk exists.

Over 90 percent of countries worldwide favor strong demilitarization of space, and this has already been reflected in several resolutions of the General Assembly of the United Nations. But the veto power at the Security Council hinders the strong directions needed for this, which are acceptable to big powers.

Dr. Michio Kaku, world-renowned physicist, has written, “The weaponization of space represents a real threat to the security of everyone on Earth. …It will greatly accelerate a new arms race in space…”

In addition, there is the increasingly serious problem of space pollution, and more prominently, Earth’s orbit.

The first aspect relates to space debris, or space junk. or space junk. This can be in the form of dysfunctional satellites or the various junk contributed by them or generated in the process of launching them. This junk has been increasing rapidly. The number of smaller debris, in particular, is extremely high. As even very small objects can result in serious collisions in space, the presence of smaller debris cannot be ignored.

This number of space debris is now set to increase as never before, as the number of satellites in Earth’s orbit is entering a pace of unprecedented escalation. This will pose many problems for constructive use of satellites for development purposes by late-entering developing countries, apart from increasing the danger of collisions.

The second aspect of space pollution is related to light pollution. This did not become a very serious issue until recently, as long as the pace of sending satellites into space was within manageable limits. But with the very rapid pace seen recently, the situation is changing, and the number of satellites in space, particularly in Earth’s lower orbit, are likely to multiply by several times within a decade, according to present projections.

Some senior astronomers have said that astronomy, as practiced so far, will be severely jeopardized, as it will become difficult to study space and images as they have done so far due to this excessive light pollution.

Clearly, there is a very urgent need to check the militarization of space and space pollution, but the unfortunate reality is that these problems appear to be getting worse in recent times.

On the positive side, networks for drawing attention to this increasing and very serious danger are also emerging. Karl Grossman (quoted above) teamed up with the Florida Coalition for Peace and Justice and Citizens for Peace in Space to set up the Global Network Against Weapons and Nuclear Power in Space. Such efforts will be increasingly needed as the dangers of space militarization escalate.