Obama proposes space weapons ban

Moments after President Obama's inauguration last week, the White House website was updated to include policy statements on a range of issues, including a pledge to restore U.S. leadership on space issues and seek a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites. The challenge, say experts, is defining what a space weapon is, and the attendant difficulties in hammering out an international treaty.  During the election campaign, Obama acknowledged these potential problems, and suggested that a simpler and quicker solution might be a "code of conduct for responsible space-faring nations," a proposal first put forth by Ploughshares Fund grantee Michael Krepon of the Henry L. Stimson Center. "There's still a lot of wiggle room" in the administration's statement on military space, said analyst Victoria Samson with the Ploughshares-funded Center for Defense Information. "But just the sheer fact that they are discussing it represents a real shift from the Bush administration."