Space is again a hot topic, with the resurrection of Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative or ‘Star Wars' missile shield, albeit under a new name. Integral to this drive and vital to its success are the deployment and use of communication technologies, and the control of flows of information. Both of these take place in orbital, extraterrestrial space, a new front for warfare and a new medium for the new media of cyberspace and the internet. This paper traces this recent development and gives a critical account of the nationalist and militarist rhetoric in which it is couched. I argue that ‘weaponisation’ of space is in contravention of a number of international treaties. I conclude that ‘astroenvironmentalism’ should be a broadly based popular movement of resistance to these moves, and of action for the global commons of space owned by none and shared by all.
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