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 …