The 51st U. S. State

Space.

"The United States considers space capabilities.....vital to it's national interests. Consistent with this policy the US will preserve its rights, cpabilities, and freedom of action in space; disuade or deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do do. ...and deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U. S. National interest. ".

This from a 2006 U. S. report on the future of military activities in space.

Unsettling that Jan 11, 2007, China decided to send a "kinetic-energy kill vehicle" at 18,000 mph to destroy it's own satellite..... The tremendous volume of "high speed", centimeter sized debris created from such an act jeopordizes satellites of all countries.

So, maybe some countries aren't crazy about the U. S.'s claim and posture in space.....

It's been held that blasting satellites is not worth the negative result of making space too dangerous due to excessive debris.

It's clear that displaying the upper hand in space, considering the vulnerability of the earth's thousands of satellites will be important to the powers that be, going forward.

I'm living in a very interesting sci fi movie.....

Check out the great article: Battlefield Space in www.popularmechanics.com by Carl Hoffman.