Chart of the High Frontier

The staid British publishers of Jane's Fighting Ships have added a new and somewhat ominous catalog to their authoritative line of reference books: Jane's Spaceflight Directory. Explains Editor Reginald Turnill: "The sort of superpower pushing and shoving that we are familiar with down on earth is moving into space." The directory, released last week, claims that the Pentagon has, for some time, been training "a new breed of military astronauts." It also mentions reports--officially discounted by both sides-- that the Soviets have already practiced "blinding" U.S. satellites with laser beams.

Defense Department officials say that reports of a military astronaut cadre are "grossly exaggerated." Otherwise, they say, the new volume "simply codifies the obvious." Indeed, most of its information can be found in public documents. Jane's detailed, fact-crammed 300-page book (price: $29.95) does, however, present a compelling look into space technology being developed by both the U.S. and the Soviet Union. "Given what we're doing," admitted one high-ranking Air Force officer, "it's the height of hypocrisy to cry wolf about the Russians."