Red Sky Mourning (Terminal List #7)

by Jack Carr

Everything is faster at lower altitudes. It is that speed on which we have become dependent. China, on the other hand, has been launching communications, military, and spy satellites at a feverish pace, almost seventy launches per year, but they have focused on mid- and high-orbital positioning. We currently maintain a huge lead in low-earth-orbital satellites, but China is ahead in the mid to high ranges. If we lost our low-orbital satellites, so goes our advantage. But, and I’ll reiterate this, we could not even rebuild our low-orbital capability because no one would be able to put anything into low orbit or even get through low orbit to mid or high orbit.” “For how long?” asked Director Howe. “No one knows for certain, but some predictive models assess that it could be a quarter century.”