May 3, 2006 :: New York Times :: News
The Pentagon is developing a ground-based laser weapon that uses beams of concentrated light to destroy enemy satellites in orbit, writes William J. Broad in the New York Times. The project, known as Starfire, uses small lasers to create artificial stars close to the intended target, and then measures the images of these artificial stars to correct for atmospheric turbulence, the distortions in visible light that cause stars to twinkle. Starfire then shoots focused beams of laser light skyward, using a large mirror 11.5 feet in diameter. The project is said to be operated from an unclassified government observatory in the New Mexico desert. Several tests have apparently already taken place in which Starfire used weak lasers to illuminate satellites. The Pentagon hopes to eventually develop a laser powerful enough for use against enemy satellites.
In January 2001, a commission led by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld warned that the U.S. military could face a potential “Pearl Harbor” in space, and called for the development of a defensive arsenal of space weapons. The Starfire project is part of that effort. No treaty or law forbids such work, although last week Republicans and Democrats on the House Armed Services subcommittee moved unanimously to cut research money for the project in the administration’s budget for the 2007 fiscal year. Broad quotes congressional aides as stating that the move reflected a “bipartisan consensus for moving cautiously on space weaponry, a potentially controversial issue that has yet to be much debated.” (Article)
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