So scary tales about U.S. "death stars" hovering over target countries
promising swift strikes from space rely merely on readers not
understanding the basics of orbital motion in space. A satellite circles
Earth in an ever-shifting path that passes near any particular target
only a few times every 24 hours, not every 10 minutes. It's quicker and
cheaper to strike ground targets with missiles launched from the ground.

Nor is a space rendezvous robot, such as those under development by half
a dozen nations and commercial consortia, a "space weapon" — despite
media claims that one of them, the Air Force's XSS-11 satellite, could
perform as a weapon. Plenty of productive peaceful rationales for these
vehicles exist, from refueling to repair to resupply, and they are going
to be deployed in large numbers in coming years.

Raising unjustified fears about them and other so-far-totally-conceptual
space vehicles may be politically or ideologically satisfying to some,
but in the big picture, feeding foreign prejudices and stoking the
insecurities of some naturally paranoid cultures is a dangerous game.

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Oberg, James. "Hyperventilating over 'space weapons'." USA Today. June 13, 2005.