Only two years after Sputnik, weapons were created for attacking spacecraft. These were based on land. But now there is talk of weapons in space-instant-kill beams like lasers. President Reagan has offered a vision of new inventions that could stop nuclear missile attacks. But will they work? Can lasers make nuclear weapons obsolete? Or would they merely be used to wage Stars Wars? Originally published in 1984, this is mainly the story of the military use of space. It shows how the new technology could trigger nuclear world war. And it looks for a way out...

In this second installment of the Epic Fails series, explore the many failures that made up the Race to Space, paving the way for humanity’s eventual success at reaching the stars. Today, everyone is familiar with Neil Armstrong’s famous words as he first set foot on the moon: “one small step for man; one giant leap for mankind.” He made it look easy, but America’s journey to the moon was anything but simple. In 1957, when the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first satellite, into orbit, America had barely crossed the starting line of the great Space Race. Later that year, our first attempt was such a failure that the media nicknamed it “Kaputnik.” Still, we didn’t give up. With each failure, we gleaned valuable information about what went wrong, and how to avoid it in the future. So we tried again. And again. And each time we failed, we failed a little bit better. The Epic Fails series by Erik Slader and Ben Thompson explores the humorous backstories behind a variety of historical discoveries, voyages, experiments, and innovations that didn't go as expected but succeeded nonetheless, showing that many of mankind's biggest success stories are the result of some pretty epic failures indeed. This title has Common Core connections.

Examines the history of NASA's shuttle program, its missions, and its impending demise in a behind-the-scenes view of what was once the cornerstone of the U.S. space program.

The year 2007 saw the fiftieth anniversary of the Space Age, which began with the launching of Sputnik by the Soviet Union in October 1957. Space is crucial to the politics of the postmodern world. It has seen competition and cooperation in the past fifty years, and is in danger of becoming a battlefield in the next fifty. The International Politics of Space is the first book to bring these crucial themes together and provide a clear and vital picture of how politically important space has become, and what its exploitation might mean for all our futures. Michael Sheehan analyzes the space programmes of the United States, Russia, China, India and the European Space Agency, and explains how central space has become to issues of war and peace, international law, justice and international development, and cooperation between the worlds leading states. It highlights the significance of China and India’s commitment to space, and explains how the theories and concepts we use to describe and explain space are fundamental to the possibility of avoiding conflict in space in the future.

Militarizing Outer Space explores the dystopian and destructive dimensions of the Space Age and challenges conventional narratives of a bipolar Cold War rivalry. Concentrating on weapons, warfare and vio​lence, this provocative volume examines real and imagined endeavors of arming the skies and conquering the heavens. The third and final volume in the groundbreaking ​European Astroculture trilogy, ​Militarizing Outer Space zooms in on the interplay between security, technopolitics and knowledge from the 1920s through the 1980s. Often hailed as the site of heavenly utopias and otherworldly salvation, outer space transformed from a promised sanctuary to a present threat, where the battles of the future were to be waged. Astroculture proved instrumental in fathoming forms and functions of warfare’s futures past, both on earth and in space. The allure of dominating outer space, the book shows, was neither limited to the early twenty-first century nor to current American space force rhetorics.

The third edition of Ingrid Detter's authoritative work explores the changing legal context of modern warfare in light of events over the last decade. Ingrid Detter reviews the status of non-State actors, as individuals and groups become more prominent in international society. Covering post 9/11 events and the resulting changes in the ethos of war, the author analyses the role of military companies and examines what their legitimacy means for international society. The edition also discusses certain ’intrinsic’ rules in the Law of War, such as rules giving individuals the right to be spared genocide, torture, slavery and apartheid and assure them basic democratic rights. The author questions the right of ’illegal’ combatants to be treated as prisoners of war and suggests that a minimum standard must be afforded to all, whether captured dictators or detainees suspected of terrorism. In the modern world, the individual (the soldier, the civilian, the dictator, the terrorist or the pirate) can no longer behave as they wish. Further new topics include 'target killings', the ’right to protect’ (’R2P’, - claimed to be a new form of intervention), the use of unregulated weapons such as drones and robots, the war scenario in Outer Space and cyber crimes. There is also a discussion of new developments in the field of war crimes including severe criticism of the novel concept 'joint criminal enterprise' (JCE), which, in the opinion of the author, undermines the Rule of Law. This updated and expanded edition will be of use to statesmen, scholars and students of international relations and international law.

The third edition of Ingrid Detter's authoritative work explores the changing legal context of modern warfare in light of events over the last decade. The new edition covers post 9/11 events and the resulting changes in the ethos of war. It analyses the role of military companies sometimes authorised by States to act in war-like situations and examines what their legitimacy means for international society. The edition also discusses certain 'intrinsic' rules in the Law of War, such as rules giving individuals the right to be spared genocide, torture, slavery and, at least nowadays, apartheid and assure them basic democratic rights.

D Types of war.