However, the evolution of air and space power has not been as similar as space weapons advocates' analogies often suggest. For example, less than a decade elapsed between the Wright brothers' first flight and the first aerial combat missions, while in the fifth decade after Sputnik space remains unweaponized. Of course, the occurrence of a major war in the 1910s had much to do with the rapid evolution of air power, and space power might look very different today if World War III had broken out in the 1960s, but with no major wars now on the horizon , this caveat hardly makes the parallel between the two cases look like a strong basis for space policy in the 21st century. In fact, both superpowers did develop anti-satellite interceptors, but then abandoned their ASAT programs, something utterly without precedent in the history of air power that casts further doubt on the soundness of the analogy. Naturally, it would be foolish to conclude from the history of the last fifty years that space will definitely not be weaponized during the next fifty, but it would also be reckless to deduce the opposite from the history of flight between 1903 and 1915.

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Mueller, Karl P. "Totem and Taboo: Depolarizing the Space Weaponization Debate." Astropolitics. Vol. 1, No. 13 (Summer 2003): 4-28. [ 3 quotes ] [ page 16-17 ]