Barack Obama as president is spelling out his policies, including a call to protect U.S. space assets by using both military and diplomatic means, and by hardening satellites against attack.

Currently, the Missile Defense Agency and the armed services don’t have any assignment to protect military or civilian (communications, commerce and financial) satellites and other space hardware.

Rather, the MDA is focused on protecting the United States, its allies and military forces from ballistic missiles launched by rogue states.

In a new Obama White House Website, a policy statement says that the first black man to win election as president would seek a global ban on anti-satellite weapons.

That would come after China employed a ground-based interceptor rocket to demolish one of its own aging weather satellites, creating a gigantic cloud of lethal space debris, imperiling satellites, the space station and other objects in orbit. China also has used a ground-based laser to disable a U.S. military satellite.

According to the White House Website, "The Obama-Biden Administration will restore American leadership on space issues, seeking a worldwide ban on weapons that interfere with military and commercial satellites."

However, in a note of realism, the policy statement moves on to address what is to be done if such a pact isn’t obtained, or if such an agreement is violated.

The administration will "thoroughly assess possible threats to U.S. space assets and the best options, military and diplomatic, for countering them, establishing contingency plans to ensure that U.S. forces can maintain or duplicate access to information from space assets and accelerating programs to harden U.S. satellites against attack."

Many Obama positions in the White House Website are similar to those he espoused during his election campaign to become president.