China is building an array of high-technology space arms – anti-satellite missiles, lasers, GPS jammers and killer satellites – that Beijing says will give its military strategic advantage in a future conflict with the United States. The People’s Liberation Army now has the capability of attacking, destroying or disrupting the 500 US satellites circling the…
Scientists studying the exoplanet WASP-12b have made a startling discovery: the planet is so hot it reflects almost no light, making it appear pitch-black. An international team of astronomers from McGill University, Canada and the University of Exeter, UK measured how much light is reflected by the exoplanet, otherwise known as its ‘albedo,’ in order…
[This piece has been adapted and expanded from Alfred W. McCoy’s new book, In the Shadows of the American Century: The Rise and Decline of U.S. Global Power.] Not quite a century ago, on January 7, 1929, newspaper readers across America were captivated by a brand-new comic strip, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. It…
The SM-3 IIA can hit bigger targets, such as incoming enemy ballistic missiles, at longer distances than previous SM-3 interceptor missiles The Missile Defense Agency and Raytheon will soon fire fire a new SM-3 missile variant into space to destroy an approaching enemy missile target – as a way to develop a new interceptor better…
Taking a good look at U.S. and Russian strategic missile defense systems’ capabilities, we have come to the conclusion that these systems will not be able, neither at this moment nor in the foreseeable future, to influence the results of a hypothetical global nuclear war. Thus, it is possible to say with a high degree of confidence…
Once a nuclear submarine entered a deep, massive ocean such as the Pacific, it used to be believed that it would remain undetectable until it surfaced. But a space-based submarine detection platform could locate it with unparalled precision.The two-man Shenzhou XI spaceship that blasted off from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in Inner Mongolia on…
