The Fight for Space

Last years Russian anti-satellite test may have heralded the start of a dangerous new era in space

Imagine you are living in Britain in 1935. On BBC radio you hear a new comedy programme named Fighter Command. It depicts a hapless general being asked to form the eponymous organisation to track down enemy bombers with invisible energy beams, and then dispatch fighter planes to shoot them down. The concept is self-evidently ridiculous - every educated person knows the bomber will always get through, and no science fiction technology can change that. Only fantasists who have read too much H. G. Wells and extremist warmongers like Winston Churchill could suggest otherwise.

This encapsulates how I see the Netflix show Space Force, whose second season is now out. The first season was released during the Trump administration, and treated the entire concept of a military branch for space as an absurd waste of money. Likely this was because it had been introduced by Donald Trump, and the sorts of people who write and commission shows for Netflix tend to despise Trump - so with a bit of a le…