House Rejects Banning ASAT Tests in Space

The House, which has blocked U.S. testing of anti-satellite weapons in space for the last three years, failed to make the ban permanent Thursday.

Ironically, the Reagan Administration, discouraged by earlier congressional action, had already given up plans to conduct such tests in the future.

By a vote of 205 to 197, the House rejected a proposal by Rep. George E. Brown Jr. (D-Colton) that would have continued the ASAT (anti-satellite weapons) test ban indefinitely. Brown’s measure had been offered as an amendment to a $299.5-billion defense spending measure for fiscal 1989 and was expected to pass as it had in past years.

It was not known whether the vote would revive Pentagon interest in a program that would launch a miniature homing vehicle from a high-flying F-15 against an object in space, but the Administration’s budget request for fiscal 1989 did not seek any funding for the test.

Rep. Lawrence Coughlin (R-Pa.) said the Pentagon canceled the program not only because of congressional opposition, but also because it was plagued by numerous development problems.

Brown noted that the Air Force, having abandoned efforts to test the miniature homing vehicle, is working on the development of other types of weapons capable of shooting down intelligence-gathering satellites, but none of these systems is yet ready to be tested.

Republicans argued against the Brown amendment on grounds that the Soviet Union already has an anti-satellite weapons system. Nevertheless, the House also rejected, by a vote of 212 to 195, an amendment offered by Rep. William L. Dickenson (R-Ala.) that would have given the Air Force $100 million that it did not request for development of a ground-based anti-satellite weapon.