GC044 The 2006 U.S. National Space Policy document

Geek Counterpoint -- Your antidote to soundbite science!

A few days ago, the White House released an update to the United States' "National Space Policy" document. In a sense, an update is overdue as this document hasn't been tweaked since 1996, when Clinton was president. It's release got a number of folks spun up, labeling the document agressive and unilateral. Some commentators got even more excited, bringing North Korea into their commentary, and talking about the militarization of space, Orwell's 1984, the war in Iraq, and even stories of allegedly faulty body armor. Since there seems to be a dearth of solid analysis online, I thought this would be a good time to give the document a good scrub, compare it to the 1996 version of the policy document, and see what's really changed.