MOONRAKER HOTEL? OR JUST MOONRAKER?

If you've been following space stories the past few years, you'll know there has been a growing concern about the weaponization of space. Most regular readers here will be aware that this phenomenon is, in my opinion, inevitable, and for a variety of reasons. In spite of the fact that many space powers - China and Russia chiefly - are opposed to the weaponization of space, America's determination toward "full spectrum dominance" and its clear determination to weaponize space in order to dominate there, and maintain its empire down here, make a space arms race all but inevitable. Add to this the growing commercialization of space, and the need will inevitably follow to protect those assets.

All of that puts this strange story into an interesting perspective from which to entertain some high - in this case, orbital - speculation (this article was shared by B.H., to whom a thank you for spotting it and passing it along):

Someone Is Secretly Working on “Privately Owned” Space Station A company was just tasked to build the station's life support systems.

The essence of the short article can be captured in a few short paragraphs:

Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of military and aerospace contractor Raytheon Technologies, is working on environmental control and life support technologies for a “privately owned and operated low Earth orbit outpost,” according to SpaceNews.

...

There is a non-zero chance that the unnamed contractor is Axiom Space, according to SpaceNews‘ analysis. The Houston-based, privately funded space company is planning to construct its own commercial space station.

The company also announced the crew for the world’s first entirely-private mission into orbit back in January, on board a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft.

But whether Axiom Space is behind the Collins contract remains unclear. The company declined SpaceNews‘ request for comment.

And that is it.

What's interesting to contemplate here is the high octane speculation - the orbital speculation - that an unknown private company is doing this. I'm reminded of the James Bond movie Moonraker, with Robert Moore in the starring role  as James Bond, and a perfectly cast Michael Lonsdale as the villain Drax, heading a company to build his own private space station, which, in true James Bond villain style, he also intends to weaponize and turn into a kind of Noah's ark while he destroys the planet.

Now I have no doubt that the current effort is just what it says it is: a space station. A private space station.

But I have to wonder how long it will be - in the scramble to commercialize space - before some corporation concludes that it will need to protect its space assets by putting up its own space-based weapons platforms? Given the current geopolitical circumstances, if you were, say, a Japanese or French firm with heavy space commitments, would you be willing to rely on the USA for protection of those assets? Probably not. And would you wait for your governments to pull out of their treaty obligations not to weaponize space?  Again, probably not.

What I'm getting at here is that nation states are not the only space players, and I am even going to far as to suggest that they may actually lag behind corporations in the weaponization of space. The danger here is that any such decisions are likely to be taken in secret, and any such deployments made in secret.

Indeed, who's to say it hasn't already happened?

In that respect, there's an interesting line that Lonsdale's character Drax says to  one of his assistants when he - Drax - understands that Bond is on to his scheme: "See that some harm comes to Mr. Bond..."  In other words, it's a secret that those involved would want to keep secret... by any means.

To put it all country simple: I'm suggesting we need to expand our thinking; the nuclear powers are not simply nations, but the corporations that can (or do) manufacture nuclear weapons, and similarly, that the space powers are not simply the nations with space programs. Indeed, by those lights, America has not been a real space power for some time. But if one includes corporations capable of manufacturing space platforms and vehicles, the picture changes, and changes completely.

And Moonraker becomes a very real possibility.

See you on the flip side...

Posted in

Joseph P. Farrell

Joseph P. Farrell has a doctorate in patristics from the University of Oxford, and pursues research in physics, alternative history and science, and "strange stuff". His book The Giza DeathStar, for which the Giza Community is named, was published in the spring of 2002, and was his first venture into "alternative history and science".

23 Comments

  1. Paolo on September 6, 2021 at 6:29 am

    First there was the dream, now there is reality. Here, in the untainted cradle of the heavens, will be created a new super race, a race of perfect physical specimens. You have been selected as its progenitors; like Gods, your offspring will return to Earth and shape it in their image. You have all served in public capacities in my terrestrial empire. Your seed, like yourselves, will pay deference to the ultimate dynasty which I alone have created. From their first day on Earth they will be able to look up and know that there is law and order in the heavens.
    —-Hugo Drax aboard his Space Station

    Folks, to be honest, were I to become a Bad Guy, I would say some shit like that.



  2. Loxie Lou Davie on September 2, 2021 at 10:15 am

    Who knows how many Breakaway Civilizations there already ARE??? Who truly knows exactly where our tiny planet fits into the Big Scheme of Things???

    Maybe there are other Forces guarding this globe allowing The Human Race to either take back its own power….. or….. finally succumb to the Evil Force that has kept us dumbed down for centuries???

    I know there are people who have figured out how to leave their bodies(You are a Soul…..You HAVE a Body!) & perhaps, that is the only way we can truly experience “Freedom”?!!



  3. Richard on September 1, 2021 at 5:49 pm

    If only it were so easy. There is one thing that has proven to be useful for any space faring entrepreneur and that has been interconnectivity – their enterprise(s), their interests, likely knowledge of the Others, amongst each competitor, and the gnawing thought that this species has the same potential to get out there, too, in a big way.

    If only it were so easy.



  4. marcos toledo on September 1, 2021 at 1:49 am

    Outlaw Star anyone think the Barbary, Cillian pirates in space throw in the Brethren Of The Coast. Think also of those crime syndicates the British, Dutch, French, Portuguese East Asian Trading Companies. Now think of all the technologies that have been hidden from us for maybe centuries I think you get the picture.



    • marcos toledo on September 1, 2021 at 3:11 am

      Correction British, Dutch, French Portuguese East Indian Trading Companies.



  5. Robert Barricklow on September 1, 2021 at 12:02 am

    In financial capitalism[U.S.] economy; the whole idea is to privatize.
    The whole idea of a successful industrial capitalism[China] economy; the whole idea is you need public ownership and public investment[1:11:18].
    in basic infrastructure, and the United States wants to privatize all this.
    Ultimately the attempt to financialize and privatize your infrastructure; is the road to an economic Dark Age and depopulation.
    Now under the American sponsored Dollar the disparities in wealth are going to widen, not only among nations, so that the wealthy nations get much richer than the third world.
    Right now the third world raw material exporters are broke because of the corona virus interruption of activity, so their unable to pay the foreign debts. And the United States and European investors are saying, “This is great the viruses are enabling us to come in and bankrupt Latin America, Africa and the Near East. And now we can grab all of them. We can tell the governments we’ll give them money to survive and give them medicine but you have to sell off your public utilities, land, and anything you still have in the public domain to sell off to us”.
    So the United States is now trying to treat Latin America, Africa, and the Near East like it treated Russia after 1991. That’s the ideal; that’s a success story and it’s a kind of financialized Dollar diplomacy, and it’s applied at home as well as internationally.
    The domestic American economy is polarizing, the population is falling deeper in debt. Homelessness is rising, unemployment is rising, and the cost of living is rising so much through a privatized health system and pension fund system and privatized utility system that American labor cannot compete w/other countries. There’s no jealousy of compet1tion, there’s no compet1tion at all given that American high-cost of financialized rent-seeking cost of living.
    The problem of having a wealthy nation is that wealth is an addiction and it produces greed and greed is rapacious. It wants to have all of money in the world for itself.
    Henry Kissinger said that power is the ultimate aphrodisiac, but if power is achieved through money, then the aphrodisiac payoff is impoverishing the rest of the world by siphoning off all the money in the economy up to the upper one percent. And that’s exactly what happened in the United States since the Obama depression of 2009 that we’re still in.
    What’s needed now too become financially independent is you need your own monetary system to create your own money, and as a public utility. So if debts rise the government – the government is the creditor – the government can write down the debt.
    You also need your own bank clearing system.

    The above shows the problem if space becomes privatized.

    Taken from Part Two of Three in Michael Hudson’s Empire series.
    http://michael-hudson.com/



    • Marco Fredriks on September 1, 2021 at 4:09 am

      Also the nationalisation of private pension funds is a great tool by our masters to write down their government debts as those retirement accounts are well invested in governement bonds. See as good examples Hungary or Argentina.



  6. FiatLux on August 31, 2021 at 3:32 pm

    A subsidiary of major government contractor Raytheon is working on technologies for a “privately owned and operated low Earth orbit outpost”? Gee… get public money to develop my (private) tech know-how, patents, and other capital, then sell it to another (private) company that then becomes more powerful than the nation-state whose taxpaying suckers financed the whole thing in the first place. Sweet! My bankster buddies even get a kickback from the interest on the debt the nation-state took on to help me develop the tech initially. Talk about a leveraged buyout of the nation-state!



  7. Marco Fredriks on August 31, 2021 at 3:30 pm

    It also might pay off to have an open mind about the definition and of perception of what space really is or could be. Therefore I do enjoy the videos from this channel where t the theory is that we are living on a greater earth in a crater. The evidences (like ant aretrica) he is giving is really mind provoking. He doesnt claim to have the truth which in my view is great. The theory is in my view quiyt aligned of what we see happening today with so called space.
    https://www.youtube.com/user/godgevlamste/playlists



    • Bleu cheese ranch on August 31, 2021 at 5:34 pm

      Fantastically lucrative contracts if there is no “space”…



  8. kalamona on August 31, 2021 at 1:42 pm

    outsourcing the the ‘elysium’ project for nibirus return? and watchin’ the herd burning 🙂
    they could already have done everything. possibly these news r just the ripples to see



  9. Robert Barricklow on August 31, 2021 at 11:55 am

    Mr. Smith your payment is past due.
    You do like breathing, don’t you?
    I’m sorry Mr. Smith, your breaking up. Can’t hear you.
    Please transfer said amount.
    Your Oxygen supply is 24 hrs.

    When “they” say zero chance; they mean a one followed by two zeroes.

    When the issuing of currency is private; money is not a problem.
    So buying Space mercenary fleet is…?
    Ex Post Facto
    Blackwater, then Xe, then Academi, then Ex Post Facto.

    Lockheed Martin probably has a few mercenary cards to play;
    including its own space based deck?

    James Bond himself has most likely been privatized.
    The old silver or lead choice.
    Maybe Mr. Bond became an outdated model and put out to pasture.
    [Never Say Never Again, Sean Connery 1983. Bond is sent to kill Blofeld and stop recapture cruise missile warheads]

    Or, has Mr. Bond been updated?
    Transhumanized for some space action?

    Running late
    White Rabbit



    • Robert Barricklow on August 31, 2021 at 7:08 pm

      I just ordered the above DVD at my library.
      Loved the plot of putting James out to pasture.
      Naturally, he serendipitously runs into SPECTRE, and saves the day;
      despite M’s move to retire him. [Sean Connery was 53 at the time]



  10. Joseph Aiello on August 31, 2021 at 11:19 am

    It would seem the cost of defending or securing a space station far outweighs the benefit with the current technology.
    The station would need some kind of shielding tech. to fend off anything including space debris.
    You can’t lift an armored space station into orbit with the current rockets.
    Maybe the technology already exists with some secret/hidden technology yet to be revealed.



  11. Michael UK on August 31, 2021 at 11:10 am

    Could it be the Voyager Space Station?
    https://www.space.com/orbital-assembly-voyager-space-station-artificial-gravity-2025
    A space hotel with artificial gravity generated from its wheel shape?



  12. Sandygirl on August 31, 2021 at 10:49 am

    What I saw 28 years ago in the nighttime sky; 6 or 7 little white dots that looked like stars playing tag with each other, zig zagging and sharp turns, traveling the expanse of the heavens in an instant. Just the boys playing with their toys with the friendly alien neighbors? How much more advanced are they today.



    • MQ on September 1, 2021 at 3:12 pm

      Good question. If it’s all “locally made” my real surprise is that no one has used such tech to truly dominate an area, or to extract tribute–perhaps quietly. If it’s “not from the neighborhood” I’m guessing they have an “observation only” order, otherwise I suspect it would’ve been over fairly quick.
      John Lenard Walson has done tons of video telescope footage of strange things orbiting the planet.



  13. Barbara on August 31, 2021 at 10:24 am

    Question is, does American military part of goverment controls these space corporations, or they went completely rouge? Was a new Space Force formed by Trump an attempt to consolidate a control over private space corp.? If yes, where are we standing with that? On the other hand if big names like LM, RY, GD etc. went rough, than “Huston we have a problem” But since all these companies rely on tax payer for finance, there is only one thing necessary, courageous leader who cuts them from the supply, deplatforms them from NYSE and various pension funds and problem solved. Yeah right! I am day dreaming, I know. Are we completely hopeless in that matter?, I don’t think so. There is always a prayer, and I am for example praying for another Leo the Great to be put in the a front of these minions.



  14. DanaThomas on August 31, 2021 at 8:23 am

    Ah, but do they have a royal charter of some sort to build that platform?



  15. Michael UK on August 31, 2021 at 6:37 am

    Oh what a tangled web they weave!
    Follow the Chairman, Presidents, non-executive directors and alumni emeritus. These people (the great and the good) have their fingers in multiple pies and help chart the course – sitting on governance boards of government agencies, corporations, defence contractors, pharmaceutical companies, banks, universities, museums and galleries, charities, broadcasting and media companies. See who sits on the boards of aerospace, space and defense contractors and map them.
    There is a massive revolving door between Government and Industry.



  16. Foglamp on August 31, 2021 at 6:08 am

    When one looks at the most likely explanation for a variety of events on the planet’s surface, it would seem that space is indeed already weaponized, in which case the space arms race will already be in progress. The events which come to mind are the dustification of the Twin Towers, the “wild” fires in California and elsewhere and miscellaneous huge explosions in Tianjin, Beirut, various Russian and North Korean military installations, US refineries and others.



  17. anakephalaiosis on August 31, 2021 at 5:28 am

    When hunting dragons, one usually brings a sword.

    PLATO’S CAVE 2

    Siegfried swung around, and no more,
    was shadow on forest floor,
    and drawn to light
    another fight,
    found dragon guarding door.

    https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/m2t6ejz8almp2g7/stand-and-deliver.mp3



    • Bluenose on August 31, 2021 at 4:15 pm

      The late great Luke Kelly of the Dubliners…love it! ??



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