The Nation - News from Jan. 1, 1989

The Defense Department has decided to modify a laser to try to knock old satellites out of the sky, the New York Times reported. The huge ground-based laser already has been fired successfully to blow up stationary missiles and shoot down speeding target drones. The White House would have to approve the tests and the shift, moving the weapon from a defensive role to a more offensive one of attacking satellites hundreds of miles away. This has already provoked opposition from critics who say it would heat up the arms race, the newspaper said. Adapting the laser to focus its beams of light steadily on moving satellites so that they can be hit hundreds of miles away is considered relatively easy and inexpensive, but officials said whether the light beam can actually destroy a satellite is undetermined, the paper said.