• Background: Militarized during Cold War, Space used to assist military operations on land today
• Intl Law and Recent Legislation: Outer Space Treaty of 1966, Space Preservation Treaty and Acts

Background

• The militarization of space refers to the placement military weaponry and technology in outer space. The idea extends back to World War II but it was not until the Cold War that governments developed such programs.
• In 1957, the USSR launched the first artificial satellite into space (Sputnik 1), initiating the Space Race between the USSR and the United States. Spy satellites were used by both governments, ushering in developments in anti-satellite technology to blind or destroy the enemy's installments, laser weapons, kamikaze style satellites, and orbital nuclear explosion technology.
• Advances in rocket science led to development of intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBM), when launched into sub-orbital space-flight, enabled the superpowers to use nuclear weaponry across distances and within minutes of launch. Programs to develop anti-ballistic missiles (ABM), like the Safeguard Program of the 1970s, were established in response to growing technological capacity.
• In 1983, President Reagan proposed the "Strategic Defense Initiative," a space-based nuclear missile defense barrier. This program was later given the name "Star Wars."
• Since the end of the Cold War, countries such as China, Japan, and India have begun space programs and the European Union is working on a comparable satellite systems.
• Although most information regarding space militarization is classified, available information suggests spy satellites are still used for monitoring nuclear testing, communications eavesdropping, detecting missile launches, global tracking, and network-centric warfare.

International Law and Recent Legislation

• The Outer Space Treaty of 1966 forbids its signatories to place nuclear weapons or weapons of mass destruction in orbit of Earth. The United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union signed the treaty in 1967. As of 2005, 98 States have ratified the treaty and 27 have signed.
• Space Preservation Treaty (SPT) is a proposed international treaty to ban all space weapons, establish a peacekeeping agency to monitor outer space and enforce the ban on space-based weapons. This treaty has received little support from U.S. officials.
• The Space Preservation Act was a series of four bills introduced to the United States House of Representatives by Dennis Kucinich (D-OH) to preserve the use of space for peaceful purposes and create land-based systems designed to destroy weapons in orbit. Each of the four bills have failed to make it out of committee.