Posted on 01/18/2007 4:58:01 AM PST by Cincinatus' Wife
Remember all the debate in the weeks and months following the release of the new national space policy that the US was opening the door to the weaponization of space—and perhaps imperiling the security of its own space assets—by appearing to go down the road of space weaponization? Now comes work from Aviation Week that
China tested, apparently successfully, an anti-satellite weapon earlier this month. The ASAT, fired from a Chinese spaceport, hit and apparently destroyed an aging Chinese polar-orbiting weather satellite on January 11. (ArmsControlWonk also had some discussion about the ASAT test shortly before the Aviation Week article was published Wednesday evening.)
It will be interesting to see how people on both sides of the space weaponization debate spin this. Is it a sign that the Chinese were not sincere in their opposition to space weaponization, and that therefore the US need to step up its defensive and offensive counterspace efforts, or does it reflect a failure of US policy (including claims that there is no "arms race in space")? Or both?
Setting aside the whole issue of space weaponization...
Wouldn't it have been better for everyone using space to have had a single, large, aging satellite in orbit as opposed to millions of little bits of former said satellite? Unless the Chinese have perfected a disintegrator, they have effectively seeded the area with millions of difficult to track, and dangerous (for other satellites) projectiles.
Doesn't seem very bright, which leads me to believe that they were intent on proving a point, regardless of the collateral damage.
The particles will not remail in orbit...they will scatter if what is being reported is true!
Polar Orbiting satellites aren't for weather, they are for targeting MIRVs. The Chinese just sent us a message that they can kill our satellites. We can kill theirs also. We call them Brilliant Pebbles.
The author of this piece is an idiot. He thinks the Chinese are only trying to build a military capability for space because they are reacting to the US. They are trying to get a leg up on us. They don't want to catch up to us, they want to pass us up. The fact is we should have had space stations and space weapons long ago.
He has a PhD in planetary science.
He thinks the Chinese are only trying to build a military capability for space because they are reacting to the US.
Nothing he wrote indicates that he thinks such a thing.
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