Insert Star Wars joke here

Wouldn’t you know that, just as the final Star Wars movie is set to premiere, the New York Times would report on a new push within the Air Force and the Bush Administration for space-based weapons. According to the report, the Air Force is asking the administration to approve a national security directive “that could move the United States closer to fielding offensive and defensive space weapons”. Such a directive could be approved within weeks, according to sources cited in the article. However, that directive would only be the first step towards deploying space-based weapons (which are still in the early conceptual stages, at least according to unclassified reports), and any such move would face opposition from some members of Congress of both parties who have spoken out against such developments in the past. So you can certainly go see Star Wars tonight, but weapons in space still have an uncertain future.