Satellites do more than just watch from the sidelines -- they are an integral part of the modern world. Satellites bind the world together and are instrumental in communications, environmental protection, weather forecasting, navigation, fishing, farming, mapping, astronomy, oceanography and hundreds of other space and earth-bound applications. Communications satellites aid international connections, allow space to be used commercially, and even play key roles in modern warfare. Satellites represent the ultimate high ground and are the key to information dominance, the contemporary ticket to success.
Because our eyes in the sky make every nation transparent, the same satellite technology can bring peace or wage war. Satellites can anticipate crop failures as easily as they can track troop maneuvers and everything can be documented in near real time. The capability to see and hear from space allows us to be more involved in each other's success or failures and how we use that information becomes paramount.
Satellites create a planetary nervous system that almost anyone can tap into. From their vantage point in space satellites make a small world even smaller.
