Outer Space Protection Act of 1988

Outer Space Protection Act of 1988 - Reaffirms U.S. policy that activities in space should be devoted to peaceful purposes to benefit mankind.

Prohibits the use of funds by the Department of Defense or any other Government agency for: (1) the development, testing, production, or deployment of any weapon system designed to be based in outer space; (2) the testing of any weapon system to determine its capability to damage or destroy any object in outer space; or (3) the launch of any spacecraft that carries weapons capable of inflicting death or injury on people.

Urges and requests the President to enter into bilateral negotiations with the Soviet Union concerning weapons systems in outer space. Specifies the purposes of such negotiations as: (1) prohibiting the development, testing, production, and deployment of all weapons based in outer space and the testing of all weapons against objects in outer space; (2) establishing limitations on technologies that could become weapons; (3) determining methods for monitoring compliance with such limitations and with mutually agreed upon prohibitions on weapons in outer space and the testing of antisatellite weapons; and (4) encouraging the effective utilization of the Standing Consultative Commission (established under the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty) to resolve disagreements and to develop limitations and verification procedures for new technologies.

Urges and requests the President, in the event that such negotiations result in an agreement, to initiate discussions in the United Nations toward an international agreement to prohibit the development, testing, production, and deployment of all weapons in outer space and to prohibit the testing of all antisatellite weapons.

Requires the Secretary of Defense to manage the long-term basic research on ballistic missile defense technologies so as to provide the United States with expanded options for responding to any future breakout by the Soviet Union from 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty.

Specifies that nothing in this Act shall be construed to prohibit the obligation or expenditure of funds for non-weapon military operations in outer space.

States that the provisions of this Act relating to bilateral negotiations with the Soviet Union and the prohibition on the use of funds for space weapons shall become inapplicable if: (1) the President certifies to the Congress that the Soviet Union has tested space weapons; or (2) the Soviet Union declares its intention to develop and deploy space weapons.