The Washington Times last week reported China’s new rocket stage booster developed for Motorola Inc.’s Iridium project created a technology bridge that could help the Chinese deploy multiple warheads on strategic missiles, according to a classified Air Force intelligence report.
Loral Corp. and Hughes Corp. also have been in the middle of allegations that satellite technology transfers to China ultimately improved Beijing’s nuclear missile capability.
It also should be noted that within the United States, there is debate about whether any intelligence has been passed to the Chinese.
A Motorola spokesman said everything his company did was cleared by the Defense Department.
I believe him. Motorola is not in the intelligence-transfer business. (And it certainly isn’t in the habit of giving information away. Motorola most likely makes a pretty penny from its intellectual property rights.)
Motorola is trying to get into the call-anyone-at-anytime-on-our-handy-Iridium-satellite-phone business.
But amid all these accusations, one has to wonder why China is such a hotbed for satellite launches.
The answer, it appears, is because it is cheaper to launch satellites from foreign soil than here in the States. NASA and the Pentagon, it seems, charge too much to launch satellites compared with counterparts in France, Russia and China, according to Gregg Easterbrook, author of the book “Beside Still Water.”
“Our space program leads the world in technical ability and in spending. But it has fallen behind nations like China in the ability to launch satellites at an affordable cost,” Easterbrook said in The New York Times.
“By neglecting the need for affordable rockets, American space policy not only created the conditions that led to the satellite deals with China, but it also has jeopardized its own future. Grand goals like the space station will become practical only once we have new launching vehicles that operate at an affordable price.”
It’s hard to believe that the same government that successfully launched the now-standard practice of having private companies pay for the right to use airwaves isn’t savvy enough to try to gain revenue from rocket launches.
Put Reed in charge of it.
