USA - Threats from Beyond Earth
“The threats that we face to our on-orbit capabilities from our strategic competitors [have] grown substantially,” Gen. Chance Saltzman, the U.S. Space Force’s second-ever chief of space operations, said in a CNBC interview. “The congestion we’re seeing in space with tracked objects and the number of satellite payloads, and just the launches themselves, have grown at an exponential rate.”
The message comes at a key moment as space rapidly commercializes and a heightened geopolitical backdrop increasingly sees threats extending beyond Earth to a domain for which rules of engagement remain unclear.
Military experts say space is likely to be the front line in any future conflicts—a battlefield that could extend to the private sector and impact civilians in real time.
“We’re seeing satellites that actually can grab another satellite, grapple with it and pull it out of its operational orbit. These are all capabilities they’re demonstrating on-orbit today, and so the mix of these weapons and the pace with which they’ve been developed are very concerning,” he said.
To respond to evolving threats and secure space assets more quickly, Saltzman is looking to further augment the [Space Force’s] capabilities to make satellite constellations more resilient and acquire more launch services by tapping into a burgeoning cadre of commercial space players.
An expanding budget helps, too. While still just a fraction of the country’s overall defense budget, the Space Force’s $30 billion request for fiscal 2024 represents a 15% increase from this year’s enacted levels.
-www.cnbc.com, 20 April 2023
Arno's Commentary
With the increase in nations sending satellites into space, it stands to reason that laws and regulations must be established.
One must emphasize that when the word “space” is used, it’s just a tiny fraction of the space around earth. For example, the first space station, Salyut 1, was initiated by Russia on 19 April 1971, followed by the US’s Skylab 1 on 14 May 1973. The International Space Station is only about 360 kilometers (220 miles) from earth. Compare that with the earth’s diameter of almost 13,000 km (8,000 mi.). However, Space has become an issue in the last few decades, primarily because of communications and, bluntly stated, spying on each other. Thus, all civilized, responsible nations must take such issues into account.
Will it work? We think so, because planet earth has already become one. For example, there are about 100,000 planes in the air every day; 50,000 ships cross the oceans loaded to the brim with merchandise; and one statistic claims that 1.2 billion vehicles are on the road daily.
Where will this all lead? One word: unity, achieved with innumerable compromises on all sides.
These comments may contradict what is presented to us by the news media, which emphasizes wars and rumors of wars. True, but not as it was a century or two ago. During those days in Europe, the main continent, small nations and kingdoms were fighting each other brutally. That has largely ceased for all practical purposes. While it seems rather unlikely in view of Russia and Ukraine in our days, in the end, all wars will cease.
What is the future? Again, peace, prosperity, and security. That’s absolutely necessary for the world to unite closer and finally come up with a truly global system, dominated in the end by a global dictator—Antichrist.
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
