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Some Western experts, notably U.S. Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, charge that the Soviets have a working satellite-killer system in place. Administration officials suspect that military research is under way aboard Mir. Indeed, a classified intelligence report this summer described a Star Wars-like test in which a laser on Mir located and tracked a Soviet dummy ICBM. U.S. observers like Soviet Space Expert Oberg find such assertions "highly implausible." Still, he does not believe for a moment "that Mir is a completely nonmilitary station." Says Oberg: "The microchips they make in space don't go into video arcades in Moscow. They go into missile guidance." He points out that the Soviets "have been pursuing a space- weapons program for 20 years and lying about it. We have to adjust to the fact that they do pretty nasty things in space weapons."
Despite mutual and growing distrust between Washington and Moscow on the military uses of space -- a contrast to increasing cooperation in limiting nuclear weapons -- Sagdeyev's plea for U.S. cooperation on the Mars Sample Return mission seems to be serious and genuine. Argues Sagdeyev: "If we start progress in this area, it could create a much better political climate."
Should the U.S. consider cooperative missions like the Mars project a legitimate pathway back into space? Or should it view Sagdeyev's emphasis on international cooperation as an attempt by the Soviets to gain access to Western technology? Sagdeyev has repeatedly assured U.S. scientists that his only interest is in building the most advanced space probes. The experience of U.S. and European scientists with Soviet space programs has been mixed. Says University of Chicago Physicist John Simpson, who had a comet-dust analyzer on Vega: "I was allowed into their inner labs to supervise the installation of the experiment directly on board their spacecraft. That had never been done before." Simpson says the Pentagon was not pleased, but notes, "There was nothing in those instruments that can benefit the Soviets militarily." To allay the fears of Western governments, the Soviets have promised that foreign satellites will be left sealed until launch, thus ensuring that no secrets of advanced technology will be stolen.
Others express frustration with Soviet managerial clumsiness. Wolfgang Pietsch of West Germany's Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics, whose team has an X-ray detector in the Kvant module, first learned that the experiment had finally been launched when it was announced on East German radio. Says Andrea Caruso, head of Europe's Eutelsat satellite cartel: "From a business point of view, they still have a lot to learn. I keep corresponding with them, and they keep sending me back telexes in Russian. It's a disaster."
For the U.S. to embrace fully Sagdeyev's concept of wide-ranging cooperation with the Soviets would mean a radical rethinking of the U.S. space program. Indeed, the very concept of a space race between the superpowers -- at least in the nonmilitary sectors -- would become outmoded. Does it really matter who is ahead in space? "Yes," answers NASA's Myers unequivocally. "It has always been the goal of the United States to be the leader in space."