The government was talking about space weapons (stars wars program) in the mids 80s. 3 decades later, what do you think they have in space?

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"...

The nations who have "space capability" no doubt have some at the ready, but not deployed.

Much of the US military hardware for this has focused on counter measures. Countermeasures are "near orbital" systems.

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. 

secret stuff -- of course.  more seriously -- there was a treaty somewhat later under which the leading powers agreed to NOT militarize space.  My guess, of course, is that some of them have made plans to do exactly that, and may already have done so.  Current technology allows the use of near earth space for surveillance and communications -- ie: satellites.  It rather follows that one other use of space during a war will be to knock out the other side's satellites.  And thus that the other side has either multiple, redundant satellites, or the ability to quickly replace ones that are knocked out.  It would be a current violation of the treaty to have weapons orbiting in space, either to use to knock out the opposition's satellites, or in a space to ground mode.  doesn't mean that the technology to place those weapons up there doesn't exist, nor that it hasn't already been used but is being kept secret.  are you scared enough yet?  [a nuclear weapon in space can't go undetected -- the radiation will give it away within minutes of its being lofted up there.]  -- grampa

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.

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!

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

I have no doubt there are a few weapons systems in space by the US, Russia and maybe China.  Possibly nukes, more likely satellites designed to destroy other satellites.