Dr. John Barentine FRAS<p>I am pleased to report that my paper on the history of the early 1960's U.S. Project West Ford is published today in the Journal for the <a href="https://scicomm.xyz/tags/History" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>History</span></a> of Astronomy. </p><p>In short, at the height of the <a href="https://scicomm.xyz/tags/ColdWar" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>ColdWar</span></a>, the U.S. military proposed the test of a passive microwave relay system in near-Earth orbital space that posed a very real threat to ground- and space-based <a href="https://scicomm.xyz/tags/astronomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>astronomy</span></a>. Astronomers were pretty upset at the prospect, and they banded together to use the bully pulpit of public opinion to change the direction of the test. Project West Ford relates to the modern international <a href="https://scicomm.xyz/tags/SpacePolicy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SpacePolicy</span></a> framework through its influence on what became the Outer Space Treaty a few years later. </p><p>The forceful response of the astronomy community more than 60 years ago offers distinct lessons for how that same community might confront the ongoing threat of large satellite constellations and rapidly proliferating <a href="https://scicomm.xyz/tags/SpaceDebris" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SpaceDebris</span></a>.</p><p><a href="https://journals.sagepub.com/eprint/HZXRYKA5T7CBMZYKSHAY/full" rel="nofollow noopener" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">journals.sagepub.com/eprint/HZ</span><span class="invisible">XRYKA5T7CBMZYKSHAY/full</span></a></p><p><a href="https://scicomm.xyz/tags/Space" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>Space</span></a> <a href="https://scicomm.xyz/tags/SpaceEnvironment" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener" target="_blank">#<span>SpaceEnvironment</span></a></p>