While I did get a few complaints on yesterday’s space piece, “Mission Worth It?” a surprising number of space lovers granted my basic points. Yet many noted that I failed to discuss the military side of space. That’s an omission I was aware of, if not happy with. It’s tough to get information on the military side of things. It’s no small matter, though. For many, the military benefits of a renewed space program could easily justify the expenditure. My guess is that the new booster rocket being talked about for a Moon program would be of real help in deploying what will probably be a new generation of heavy star wars satellites. But I’m just speculating. It’s true that we could build boosters for military purposes alone, but it does seem as though, if we are going to have a new-generation satellite delivery system anyway, it would be cost effective to use it for both military and civilian purposes. The Chinese are now in space, and no doubt they have their own spy satellites. So you have to wonder about satellites that kill other satellites. And China is headed to the Moon. Does the Moon have military uses? I don’t know, but you can’t help suspect it. This not likely something the president can talk about. To the extent that military competition with China is a factor in the president’s space proposals, it says something about where we are now. The Soviets are gone, the Russians are our space partners, and the Chinese are the new space superpower emerging to challenge the United States. In that sense, we may have already reached a whole new world.