The mammoth asteroid-hunting Pan-STARRS telescope is impaired by US military restrictions that keep it from scanning sections of the sky where sensitive military spacecraft might be operating.

The Obama administration on Monday unveiled a space policy that renounces the unilateral stance of the Bush administration and instead emphasizes international cooperation, including the possibility of an arms control treaty that would limit the development of space weapons.

A recent United States Air Force scramjet test has hinted at a future where hypersonic vehicles streak through the sky at many times the speed of sound around the world, and perhaps even open up access to space.

The U.S. Air Force's secretive X-37B space plane may eventually get some company in low-Earth orbit as other countries such as Italy and Russia push forward with plans for their own reusable winged spaceships.

Advances in the technology have made it possible for military testers to shoot down incoming mortar rounds with land-based lasers, and military commanders are on the verge of being able to fire laser blasts from the air that could be aimed at tanks or mines.

The hush-hush X-37B robotic space plane launched by the United States Air Force late Thursday is many things, but it's no space weapon, according to high-ranking official with the project.

The US will take on a broader range of military responsibilities, including defending space and cyberspace, in spite of growing pressure on budgets, according to the latest Quadrennial Defense Rev­iew.

The United States faces an evolving list of potential adversaries in the 21st century that not only continue to seek weapons of mass destruction, but are honing the skills necessary to wage battle in cyberspace as well as outer space, a panel of national security experts said Jan. 20.

Richard Fisher finds a lot to worry about in China's recent test of exoatmospheric missile interception, arguing that the U.S. needs to take this "as a wake-up call that in the long term, China intends to challenge its strategic superiority in aerospace."

India has begun development of lasers and an exo-atmospheric kill vehicle that could be combined to produce a weapon to destroy enemy satellites in orbit, according to the director-general of India's defense research organization.