What India Hates About The Space Code of Conduct

The Space Review has an offering on why India is a no-go for participation in the EU’s space Code of Conduct (CoC). Here are the six reasons, lifted quite directly from the Space Review article: 1. The non-binding nature of the CoC 2. Repetition of and intrusion into a country’s domestic space policies 3. The [...]

Life At Secret Iranian Facilities Is Risky Business

It seems if you work at one of the secret Iranian facilities associated with the nuclear weapons program or the ballistic missile effort, life is fraught with risk. Stuxnet, Revolutionary Guard mishaps, what’s next? Oh, another mishap. Wonder how many are dead this time? An explosion rocked the western Iranian city of Isfahan on Monday, [...]

Ode to SpaceX and Musk

The media is enamored with Elon Musk. Why not? He’s building rockets and rockets are cool; he doesn’t discourage the many ‘genius’ tags thrown his way (maybe because there aren’t too many physics majors in journalism); he’s already made a fortune (PayPal) in the real world (and cashed out), and he’s a reliable political and [...]

Secret Revolutionary Guard Training Facility Discovered

It seems there’s new evidence regarding the secret training school associated with the Iranian Revolutionary Guard’s missile program. Wikileaks got nuthin’ on Songs of Space and Nuclear War (and you still can’t spell Assange without a-s-s).

Iranian Missile Test Kills 20-plus Iranians; Russia Rattles Its Nuclear Saber WRT U.S. Missile Defense

It appears Iran killed at least 20 of its own in a secret missile test, including Revolutionary Guard Gen. Hasan Moghaddam. Details surrounding the disaster are not well known. Given the observed outcome, all I can advise is this: keep working boys, keep working. You’ll know you’re fully successful when you’re all dead. Of course, [...]

Manned Space Will Never Be Great

Because the mind’s eye far exceeds ground truth, there are calls to “make manned space flight great again,” especially in the post-Shuttle era. A new direction in collaboration among government and private space agencies, especially in nations with an established space industry infrastructure, might yield technologies and commercially viable projects that could benefit the world [...]

Chinese Hackers Disrupt U.S. Space Systems?

Why would China use cyber to disrupt U.S. space capabilities? Because it’s cheaper, faster, and better than physical disruptions which might generate space debris, leave more evidence, and remove plausible deniability. As you may have been told, when you don’t have declared war, covert is good and overt is bad. That’s likely why they used [...]

Suppose we signed a treaty and no one cared?

There’s this thing that keeps turning up over and over. Like a bad penny, you ask? No, more along the lines of a bad tumor. It’s called the space code of conduct. As you might expect, those who think arms control creates peace favor the space code of conduct. However, the reality-based community generally views [...]

The pump don’t work ‘cause the hackers are attackers

Think that cyber war is a distant threat? It isn’t. Foreign hackers caused a pump at an Illinois water plant to fail last week, according to a preliminary state report. Experts said the cyber-attack, if confirmed, would be the first known to have damaged one of the systems that supply Americans with water, electricity and [...]

Newest Epic Fail: COIN

One of the more self-evident observations of all time has to be this: use the appropriate tool for the job. That’s why COIN, with its now ‘so five minutes ago’ emphasis on counterinsurgency operations and competencies, is dropping from its brief position of pre-eminence to something far more appropriate on the national security priority list. [...]