e military are
concerned, and U.S. forces--particularly since the development of the
much lighter atomic warheads--have been likewise diligent in their space
efforts. This is because many military minds are now agreed that:

We are moving inevitably into a time of astropower. We face a
threat beyond imagination, should events ever lead to open conflict
in a world of hypersonic velocities and a raging atom chained as
our slave. We must be strong, we must be able to change to meet
change. What may come against our beloved America will not be
signaled by one light from the North Church steeple, if they come
by land, or two, if they come by sea. Never again. They will come
through space, and their light of warning will be the blinding
terror of a thermonuclear fireball.[12]

It is important to note, in connection with military matters, that pure
rocket power, is not the only avenue to success in space use. The
American Atlas missile, for example, which can carry a nuclear warhead
and which operates on considerably less thrust than the powerful Soviet
boosters thus far demonstrated, has nevertheless shown the capability of
negotiating a 9,000-mile trek and landing in the target area. This is
about 1,500 miles farther than any Soviet shots revealed to the public
in the 2-1/2-year period following the first sputnik. It is also a
sufficient range to permit reaching almost any likely target on the
globe.

From the military point of view, the meaning thus brought out is that
sophistication of missiles together with reliability and ease of
handling is more important than pure power.

When we begin to consider both the civil and military aspects of space
use in the decades ahead, however, rocket power acquires fresh
importance. It is, as one expert says, "the key to space supremacy."[13]
Not only is much heavier thrust required for ventures farther out into
space, but probably thrust developed by different means as well, such as
atom, ion, or even photon power.

This suggests the possibilities of weapons which today are considered to
be "way out" or "blue sky"--in short, farfetched. Yet they include the
ideas of men with solid scientific training as well as vision. For
example, Germany's great rocket pioneer, Prof. Hermann Oberth, "has
proposed that a giant mirror in space (some 60 miles in diameter) could
be used militarily to burn an enemy country on Earth. For peaceful
purposes,