Protection in Space : 9781288311972 : 01 Nov 2012 : America is critically reliant upon space exploitation for a wide variety of activities. These range from strictly military capabilities such as intelligence gathering and secure communications to civilian financial transaction timing and remote Earth sensing for environmental analysis. Recent developments in anti-satellite technologies signal a dangerous threat to U.S. space dominance. Specifically, zero-warning threats such as ground-based lasers or direct-ascent kinetic-kill vehicles present the biggest challenge for which there is little or no defense. Until recently, the U.S. had been reasonably secure that its satellites were free from disablement. Unfortunately, many adversary nations acquired anti-satellite technologies and proliferated them; threatening permanent disablement of almost any American satellite. This monograph surveys available unclassified literature to assess current and emerging threats to U.S. satellites and e