In other news, the Boston Globe is reporting the Pentagon has asked Congress for hundreds of millions of dollars to test weapons in space. The Globe calls the request the biggest step toward creating a space battlefield since President Reagan’s so-called “Star Wars” program. The budget request would fund a variety of tests on several weapons. Military specialists believe the Pentagon is operating several other space weapons programs not disclosed in its budget request. Philip Coyle, who served as the Pentagon’s top weapons tester from 1994 to 2001, criticized the new emphasis on space weaponry at a time when: ’’there is no threat in space to justify a new arms race in space.”