and she said.. "how you interpret the dream is probably more important than the dream itself"

Space roundup:

If you haven't heard already, China shot down one of its own satellites with a new weapon they have developed. It's nomenclature? A kinetic kill vehicle. If you couldn't have already guessed, nobody other than the chinese seem particularly happy about it. Of note: Japan, USA, Britain, Taiwan, Australia, and Canada.

Canada has formally registered its "strong concerns" with China. In fine "the small child bully on the playground we used to scold as teachers but now can't scold so harshly anymore cause they aren't such a small bully anymore" fashion:
Government officials spent more than a day searching for the precise words to convey Canada's response to China's Jan. 11 firing of a ground-based missile to destroy one of its own obsolete weather satellites.
Yes yes.. "precise words." I'm thinking the one they are looking for is stop.

The take in the USA?
"The US believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese."
Or, as Brant would say: "This is our concern, dude."

The Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer said:
"So far, the answer from the foreign affairs people in China, including the ambassador in Canberra, is that they are not aware of the incident and they are getting back to us,"
Smacking very much of do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do:
In October, President Bush signed an order asserting the United States' right to deny adversaries access to space for hostile purposes. As part of the first revision of U.S. space policy in nearly 10 years, the policy also said the United States would oppose the development of treaties or other restrictions that seek to prohibit or limit U.S. access to or use of space.

"Freedom of action in space is as important to the United States as air power and sea power," the policy said. "In order to increase knowledge, discovery, economic prosperity and to enhance the national security, the United States must have robust, effective and efficient space capabilities."
Like the good 'ol lapdog that they are, Britain mimed right along with the US.
It looks like Japan isn't going to the moon afterall:
Japan's space agency has recommended scrapping its first moon mission after more than a decade of delays, a spokeswoman said Monday, in the latest blow to the country's beleaguered space program.

The Lunar-A probe was envisioned as planting two seismic sensors on the lunar surface to gather information about the moon's core and learn more about the origins of the Earth's only natural satellite.

But development of the so-called penetrator probes has taken so long that the mission's mother ship, which was built 10 years ago, has fallen into disrepair and would require too much money to fix, said Satoko Kanazawa, a spokeswoman for the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency, or JAXA.
And meanwhile, India is making some inroads:
A 550-kg satellite that India’s own rocket launched into orbit 12 days ago, was successfully brought back to earth and retrieved on Monday after deft manoeuvres lasting 64 minutes..

.. With this, the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has demonstrated its skill in re-entry technology, vital for future space projects like re-usable launch vehicles and manned missions. The others to master the technology are the US, China, Japan and the European Space Agency.
The last time I made anywhere close to 64 minutes worth of deft manoevres was.. well, let's just say I feel about as old as a Japanese lunar probe.