Weapons in space: a not-so-heavenly vision

We call it the heavens. Space, so long regarded as the ultimate repository of mystery, the place that holds the answer to who we are and what we came from.

For the ancients, it was where the gods lived. For those who experienced the achievements of the space program, it was a yardstick measuring how far we had come and how far we might still go.

Will space now be the site of Earth's next big arms race?

Last week, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld outlined a military vision for space. He advocated bringing together all military space programs under a four-star Air Force general. He spoke broadly of the need to defend private and military satellites from attack. Although he insisted that his plans had "nothing to do" with putting weapons in space, it might be worth asking just what the plan is about, if not ultimately that.

The space program always has had close ties with American strategic concerns. We raced the Soviet Union to demonstrate the range and accuracy of our missiles; some insist that the entire space program has been driven by this. But it is also true that space exploration has a power to inspire that has nothing to do with military positioning.

To live in America during the Mercury and Apollo programs was to see a nation pull together to strive for a peacetime goal with a spirit similar to what had, in the past, only been mustered during wartime. In space, one felt, the United States was acting as an ambassador for all of humanity. Perhaps this was only the naive, popular view, but it held a palpable reality for rank-and-file Americans.

When Rumsfeld says, "More than any other country, the United States relies on space for its security and well-being," he no doubt speaks the truth. As former chairman of a congressional commission charged with studying military issues in space, he is well-qualified to speak on the matter. But we must recognize, too, that the United States has so much at stake in space because we have had the wealth and technology to exploit space's potential. Despite European and Asian space ventures, no one comes close to what we have achieved.

From the 1970s on, space has been ground for diplomacy. Consider the Apollo-Soyuz joint mission in 1975, as well as subsequent joint missions with the Soviets and now the Russians, culminating in the International Space Station. There are those who say President Reagan's touting of the so-called Star Wars program won the Cold War by forcing the Soviet Union to spend itself into economic collapse. But that war is over, and Russia poses a strategic threat only to the degree that it feels threatened.

For the United States now, at the height of its power, to speak of asserting its might at the final frontier could send a threatening signal and set in motion exactly what Rumsfeld would have us guard against.

Battlefield Space? Heaven forbid.

Rather is anchor of CBS Evening News and a native Texan.