Location
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Atlantis/Discovery Rooms
Start Date
21-4-1992 2:00 PM
Description
Military applications of space were conceived well before the first orbiting satellites. For over a decade after World War II, the U. S. military studied possible uses of space and developed technologies essential for spaceflight. However, it took the shock of Sputnik in October 1957 for America to begin its military space program in earnest. Since that time, national imperatives and technology advances have driven our military space program, including surveillance and assessment of the Soviet military threat, and collection of data to monitor treaties. As advances were made in space technologies, applications, such as communications and meteorology, proved to be of significant value to military operations. Leaders within the defense community have long recognized our growing dependence on space. Today, we depend on space for indications and warning of hostile acts, command and control of nuclear and conventional forces, environmental information for planning air, land and sea campaigns and operations, and precise targeting and navigation data.
Paper Session I-A - Space Strategy and the New World Order
Howard Johnson Plaza-Hotel, Atlantis/Discovery Rooms
Military applications of space were conceived well before the first orbiting satellites. For over a decade after World War II, the U. S. military studied possible uses of space and developed technologies essential for spaceflight. However, it took the shock of Sputnik in October 1957 for America to begin its military space program in earnest. Since that time, national imperatives and technology advances have driven our military space program, including surveillance and assessment of the Soviet military threat, and collection of data to monitor treaties. As advances were made in space technologies, applications, such as communications and meteorology, proved to be of significant value to military operations. Leaders within the defense community have long recognized our growing dependence on space. Today, we depend on space for indications and warning of hostile acts, command and control of nuclear and conventional forces, environmental information for planning air, land and sea campaigns and operations, and precise targeting and navigation data.
