Richard Aboulafia, aviation consultant with Fairfax, Va.-based Teal Group, said that partnerships between Western and Chinese aviation companies have tended to unravel over time because of intellectual-property issues.

The State Department is pursuing "all available options," including administrative penalties, to compel Thales Alenia Space to disclose any U.S.-made parts in eight communications satellites it sold to China, Assistant Secretary for Legislative Affairs David Adams told Congress. The department's options include withholding licenses the company needs as prime contractor on a $3 billion program to build 81 satellites for Iridium Communications Inc. (IRDM), according to Marco Caceres, a military and civilian space analyst. He said that could postpone Iridium's plans to launch the first of the new satellites in 36 months and possibly force the company to find a U.S. contractor to take over the program. "If they delay it by six months, Iridium needs to do it sooner rather than later," Caceres of the Fairfax, Virginia- based Teal Group, said in an interview.

Beijing will tread carefully in punishing Boeing over sales of Patriot missiles to Taipei. Near term, it will tilt more purchases by state-controlled carriers away from the U.S. aircraft manufacturer to Airbus, but Airbus lacks the capacity to meet all of China's long-range civil aviation needs. And there's another consideration, as aerospace consultant Joel Johnson of the Teal Group Corp. explains: "A little over half their fleet is Boeing. If they retaliate against (Boeing) aircraft parts, they're only screwing their own airlines."

While China’s anti-satellite system test created a bit more debris in orbit by reducing China’s Feng Yun 1C polar-orbiting weather satellite to a cloud of debris, it is everyday space operations that contribute the vast majority of the space junk in orbit. “The response to the Chinese test was probably overdone,” says Marco Caceres, senior analyst and director of space studies for Teal Group of Fairfax, Va. “Debris is going into space all the time. Satellites are maneuvered down and burn up in the atmosphere and spread into tiny pieces.

Often where there is a launch, the upper stage of the rocket eventually drops off before placing satellite into orbit. Much of that will burn in the atmosphere, but some will stay in orbit. … The Chinese test was not anything particularly alarming in itself,” he says. “The issue of space debris is alarming, particularly for commercial operators and especially at low-Earth orbit, where a lot of that debris will end up. There is still a chance to be hit, even though it’s a huge area. This has to be addressed as we put up more satellites.”