There is a “hearing” scheduled for tomorrow on Capitol Hill about one of the most popular contentious space issues, placing weapons in space. Only this is not your ordinary hearing. Rather than involve a House or Senate committee, the “e-Parliament” (which sounds like a late 90s dot-bomb but is actually an organization that claims to “link democratic members of parliament and congress into a global forum, combining meetings and electronic communication”) is conducting a “Parliamentary Hearing on Space Security”. The event will bring together legislators from ten countries, ranging from the US to Ghana, to take testimony from a panel of experts and discuss the issue. The hearing doesn’t appear to have an obvious slant one way or the other on the topic: the presenters include Henry Cooper, a staunch proponent of space-based missile defense, and Theresa Hitchens, an outspoken critic of space weaponization. Being an “e-Parliament” this event will be webcast, or you can attend it the old-fashioned way by going to Rayburn 2105.
The name of the hearing itself “Parliamentary Hearing on Space Security” raises an important point: The rest of the world labels this basket of issues “space security” whereas the US labels it “space weapons”.
The trouble is “space weapons” has connotations of Star Wars type scenarios that are not the intent of the US. “space security” is a better descriptor for what DOD presently wants and the name is much less of a liability. DOD should change their terminology unless they specifically want to induce hearings, deliberations and preemptive thinking about “space weapons” around the world while not actually pursuing them.