COLORADO SPRINGS Commercial operators, in their quest to capitalize quickly on space, do not perceive near-term threats to orbiting spacecraft worth billions of dollars, despite repeated warnings from military space officials. A recent National Defense Industrial Assn, study revealed a relatively naive, short-term philosophy among commercial space entities.

PASADENA, CALIF Deep Space 1 is midway through the second six-week burn of its xenon ion engine, gently altering its trajectory toward a 9-km. flyby of the asteroid 1992 KD on July 28-29. The spacecraft's autonomous navigation (autonav) system is to take full control of the flight path this week.

Paris Scientists in Germany are concerned that future spending demands for European programs, coupled with an expected decrease in federal government support for research, may severely curtail funding for national R&D projects. European Space Agency programs already account for 75% of the total German space budget of DM1.3 billion ($722 million), and the scientists fear that this percentage will grow under demands of the spending proposals to be put before the ESA ministerial council in May.

INCIRLIK AB, TURKEY and WASHINGTON Long-running Pentagon complaints have again resurfaced that the supreme allied commander in Europe, U.S. Army Gen. Wesley Clark, has clamped down so tightly on information about the conflict in Kosovo that military staffs and intelligence agencies are sometimes being cut out of planning and ordered not to talk with one another.

WASHINGTON Biological warfare is fast emerging as the “weapon of choice” to end-run U.S. military superiority, requiring a fundamental shift in strategy and a longterm research and development program in defensive high technologies, authorities say.