But if it is what the White House suggests, we may now find ourselves facing this generation’s Sputnik moment. Now that we know what Russia is planning, the United States cannot afford to be slow to act. The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, to which Russia is a party, prohibits the placement of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit around Earth. While the United States has made advances in space defenses, it would struggle to defend its satellites against a nuclear attack in space. We use satellites to collect intelligence and to detect missile launches, and for navigation, communications and controlling precision weapons.

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Persons: John Kirby, White, Eisenhower Organizations: Capitol, Soviet Union, Soviets Locations: Russian, Russia, United States