u_bin_called
I recall reading a science journal that said something like 20% of all active satellites currently in orbit are operated by the U.S. military and/or U.S. intelligence agencies.
The "Orion" satellites are allegedly able to simultaneously monitor hundreds of thousands of cell phone connections and an even greater amount of data passing through the internet... constantly "listening" for key words and terms relevant to our anti-terrorism and national defense interests (and it's only being used to monitor the "bad guys"....right?).
Meanwhile, do you recall one of Trump's many Twitter gaffes was the release of a spy satellite image of an Iranian missile site. It took only minutes after he posted it for journalists and experts around the world to notice that the resolution and detail were are higher than anything previously made public. It literally looked like a HD photograph taken from only a few hundred feet in the air.
Lost in the predictable barrage of anti-Trump criticism was the military's cavalier response assuring us that the President didn't reveal anything critical (Translation: we can already capture images in even greater detail that that).
It might not be X-wings and space lasers...but as the old saying goes "information is power." Just think of how much information is being passed through those satellites right now, then realize that all that data can be recorded, stored and kept for decades just waiting for data-mining programs to to pick up all of tomorrow's "unapproved words"...
Beardog
People were trying to figure out lasers and space missiles, but it actually doesn’t take that much. You could take out a city by pushing a 10lb ball of tungsten out the airlock at the right moment and just letting it fall.
?
The X-37b is actually an orbiting vending machine. We send it up whenever the fleet from Proxima Centauri b is in our solar system, to supply their crew members with chewing gum, cigarettes, magazines and beef jerky.
The fact that cattle mutilations have ceased is all the evidence we need to confirm that they were really after our tasty beef jerky all along.
Mr. Smartypants
Dr. Edward Teller convinced Ronald Reagan that we could protect the whole contry against nuclear ICBMs with a single x-ray laser the size of an office desk. This idea grew almost immediately to a multi-trillion-dollar program of satellites carrying bombs, missiles that could shoot down missiles, etc. We spent >$1 trillion but produced nothing of value. All the tests were faked!
Republicans and Democrats both use massive govt. spending to stimulate the economy. They just want to spend it on different things. Star Wars (the Strategic Defense Initiative) never made us safer. Just as with the F-35, the purpose all along was just to spend the money!
Desolate the Toothsome
There was a program designed to shoot tungsten rods at targets here on Earth, doing catastrophic damage from mere kinetic force, but it turns out the "space weapons" apparently cost too much