President Trump took the next step for militarizing space by announcing a new program for arming low earth orbit. Called the “Golden Dome,” the system would utilize satellites with defensive missiles intended to shoot down attacking missiles anywhere around the globe where missiles can be launched. “One big, beautiful dome,” explained Mr. Trump, “sending our missiles raining down from space on their missiles before they can reach the United States.”
Early analysis of this plan by experts in the field noted that the cost would exceed initial estimates of $175 billion by at least two to three times and the accuracy would possibly hit one or two incoming ballistic missiles. Experts voiced no comment on where the missiles that missed missiles might land.
The initiative is likely to set off a race to militarize space, with the inevitable conflicts ensuing. “This is starting to sound like the Gravity film,” said Ron Feisterwitz, Executive Director of Peace Please, an NGO in Washington D.C. In the movie, George Clooney and Sandra Bullock become stranded in space when the International Space Station is destroyed by debris from an attacked Russian satellite. “Surely there will be weapons fired at satellites themselves. The explosive scattershot would circle the earth, wiping out everything in its path: Internet and phone communications, weather satellites, and now nuclear powered and armed launch stations. This could set us back a hundred years, if not armageddoning us into the Stone Age!”
Russia is the country with the most nuclear warheads. When a reporter from TASS, Russia’s state media organization, asked President Vladimir Putin for comment, he responded with minimal concern. “If Trump starts to build a ‘Golden Dome,’ we will respond. We have the ‘Golden Shower.’”
