(CNSNews.com) - Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) on Monday criticized what he sees as a muted Bush administration response to a recent Chinese anti-satellite missile test, saying the launch highlights the need for the United States to protect its interests in space.

The Chinese government on Jan. 11 tested a ground-launched anti-satellite (ASAT) missile that destroyed an aging weather satellite in low orbit.

Calling the Chinese test a "wake-up call," Kyl said during a speech at the conservative Heritage Foundation that the United States "cannot depend on uncontested access to space in the future."

"While it's comforting to think that the threat could be neutralized through negotiation and arms control ... it cannot. In fact, going down the arms control route is only likely to further weaken our security," he added.

Arms control advocates have urged the Chinese and American governments to abandon development of such weapons, arguing that they create space debris and can raise tensions among space-bound nations.

"[T]he development and use of ASAT weapons threatens to undermine relationships and fuel military tensions between space faring nations," David Wright, co-director of the Union of Concerned Scientists' Global Security Program, said in a statement.

"Space is uniquely well suited to a wide range of scientific, civilian and military purposes," Wright said. "Debris produced by the testing or use of kinetic energy ASATs threatens the use of space for these purposes. China's test merely demonstrates what we already knew: satellites are by nature vulnerable to attack."

Wright urged the Chinese government to abandon further testing and called on the U.S. to "enter international discussions to develop rules guiding the use of space and to ban the testing and use of destructive ASAT weapons."

Kyl, the ranking Republican on the Senate Judiciary Committee, said the test illuminates a threat to U.S. interests in satellite technology ranging from communications to military reconnaissance.

Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.), co-chair of the House Bipartisan Task Force on Nonproliferation, agreed with Kyl that the test exposed vulnerabilities to American satellites.

Unlike Kyl, however, Markey urged Bush to "guarantee their protection by initiating an international agreement to ban the development, testing, and deployment of space weapons and anti-satellite systems."

"An arms race in space to develop anti-satellite weapons would cause needless instability and threaten American economic and national security," Markey said in a statement.

"Unfortunately, the threat to our space security is real and growing," Kyl said. He called it "troubling" that "key policy makers seem oblivious to the nature and urgency of this threat" and criticized arms control advocates who oppose militarizing space.

"Military capabilities in space are likely to prove vital to our security in the future, and I do not believe that we should consider forfeiting our right to build them," Kyl said.

"If targeting an adversary's satellites allows our military to achieve victory more quickly or at lower cost in blood, such attacks must be considered. The Chinese seem to understand this point much better than we do," he added.

Bush has made no public statements on the test even though it occurred in time for comments to be included in his Jan. 23 State of the Union speech.

On Jan. 18, White House press secretary Tony Snow said the president was "concerned about it and we've made it known." The following day, deputy press secretary Dana Perino said the White House had "concerns about it" and "has expressed those concerns to China, both here, with our officials here in Washington, D.C., and in Beijing."

"We have not heard back from the Chinese, as far as I know," Perino said. "But we do want a civil space cooperation with the Chinese and others."

On Jan. 19, State Department spokesman Tom Casey told reporters that, "U.S. policy is that all countries should have a right to peaceful access to space."

He said the State Department was "concerned by any effort, by any nation that would be geared towards developing weapons or other military activities in space."

U.S. officials have "asked the Chinese to give us some greater detail about what they did, why they did it and explain it ... in greater detail to us."

"We don't want to see a situation where there is any militarization of space," Casey said. "We certainly don't want to see a situation in which even tests of this kind that produce extensive amounts of space debris have the potential for disturbing or accidentally disrupting communications satellites or other kinds of space vehicles that are out there."

Kyl questioned the State Department's position, saying that "space has long been militarized" and nations "will neither un-invent capabilities nor be able to stop future technology."

He criticized his fellow Republicans for not funding and exploring the protection of U.S. interests in space.

"Most of the current neglect happened on our watch, but space security and missile defense are as much a part of the Reagan legacy as economic growth and constitutionalist judges," Kyl said.

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