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29 May 2007
Following the release of an aggressive new US national space policy and China's recent anti-satellite test, CDI Director Theresa Hitchens testified to members of Congress on the need for international cooperation in space.
In the first congressional oversight hearing on U.S. space policy, CDI Director Theresa Hitchens argued that U.S. space policy should protect U.S. interests and security while preventing the world from sliding down a slippery slope to space weaponization. The hearing by the House Oversight and Government Affairs Subcommittee on National Security and Foreign Affairs, was held on May 23, 2007.
Hitchens uses government documents to prove that the United States is moving to embrace a full-scale space warfare strategy. This strategy includes possible preemptive action, and possible destruction of satellites using destructive, debris-creating weapons, weapons U.S. Air Force officials repeatedly have rejected in public statements as dangerous because of the indiscriminate threat to all space assets, including those of the United States, posed by space debris.
In her written testimony, Hitchens argued that the combination of aggressively unilateral U.S. declaratory policy and lack of government interest in international diplomacy has actually worked against U.S. interests in space. If the space environment is to be secured, the United States instead must chart a cooperative course that would lay a foundation for collective security in space.
To read CDI Director Theresa Hitchens written testimony, click here.
To read testimonies from other witnesses at the hearing, click here.