Space Wars, Space Peace
Analysis
BBC
4.6 • 1K Ratings
🗓️ 1 February 2016
⏱️ 28 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Chris Bowlby explores the shifting balance between two visions of outer space - as a place of harmony and as a zone of growing international tension. We may think war in space is a scenario dreamed up by Hollywood. But the world's top military minds now believe future wars will be fought both on Earth - and above it. Chris visits an arms sales fair, and hears how space now affects everything from how armies move, to how nuclear deterrence works. Could crucial satellites he hacked in an act of aggression, might space debris trigger a war? Why is China taking space security so seriously? And can the international cooperation which put astronaut Tim Peake into space survive?
Producer: Chris Bowlby Editor: Hugh Levinson.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Thanks for downloading analysis from the BBC. |
| 0:02.6 | This week we gaze up at the heavens. |
| 0:05.2 | Chris Bulby examines the history of two visions of outer space |
| 0:08.8 | as a place of harmony and a place of conflict |
| 0:11.4 | and asks if the balance between them is now shifting. Space infinite. Space, infinite, |
| 0:24.4 | infinite, mysterious, awe-inspiring, its exploration drawing humanity together in a sense of |
| 0:30.4 | scientific endeavor and shared destiny, a realm far from the small-minded rivalries |
| 0:36.4 | and conflicts of planet Earth. |
| 0:38.8 | Or at least that's what we like to believe. But something's changing. New more |
| 0:47.4 | pessimistic sounds are circulating among those who monitor what's going on up |
| 0:52.2 | there. The idea of relying on space and even |
| 0:56.2 | fighting in space was once science fiction and now it's real. And among those planning for future wars and selling the |
| 1:05.8 | hardware to fight them, space conflict is very much on their minds. |
| 1:10.0 | Space is the fourth frontier. You've got undersea, you've got surface warfare, you've got air warfare, and you've got space warfare. |
| 1:20.0 | So I'm setting off boldly in this program to explore that new frontier and examine the rivalry between two very different ideas of space as a place of peace, hope and international cooperation, and as a potential war zone. |
| 1:35.0 | Who's winning? Venus or Mars. |
| 1:38.0 | Human entry into the space zone was announced in 1957 when this was heard. |
| 1:47.0 | The sound of Sputnik, the first satellite sent up by the Soviet Union circulating the world sending |
| 1:55.2 | out its unforgettable beeping signal. |
| 1:58.3 | And then all of a sudden reported on the news late that evening was a thing that actually had come from Russia that was flying over us |
| 2:08.5 | that was beeping making a noise and it was god-like. |
| 2:15.0 | This is Radio Moscow and here I see you. |
... |
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