Posted on 01/18/2007 11:39:51 AM PST by Abathar
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States, Australia and Canada have voiced concerns to China over a test in space of a satellite-killing weapon last week, the White House said on Thursday.
"The U.S. believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said. "We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese."
Using a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile, the test knocked out an aging Chinese weather satellite about 537 miles above the earth on January 11 through "kinetic impact," or by slamming into it, Johndroe said.
Canada and Australia had joined in voicing concern, he said.
Britain, South Korea and Japan were expected to follow suit, an administration official added.
A key concern is debris that could interfere with civilian and military satellite operations on which the West increasingly relies.
On the day of the test, a U.S. defense official said the United States was unable to communicate with an experimental spy satellite launched last year by the Pentagon's National Reconnaissance Office. But there was no immediate indication that this was a result of the Chinese test.
No such publicized destruction of a satellite in space has occurred in at least 15 years, said Marco Caceres, a space expert at the Teal Group, an aerospace consulting firm in Fairfax, Virginia.
SATELLITE-KILLING CAPABILITY
Aviation Week & Space Technology, the first to report the test, cited space sources as saying a Chinese Feng Yun 1C polar orbit weather satellite, launched in 1999, was destroyed by an antisatellite system launched from or near China's Xichang Space Center in Sichuan Province.
The satellite-killing capability demonstrated by China was no surprise to the Bush administration, which revised U.S. national space policy in October with an eye on boosting protection of U.S. civilian and military satellites.
In a major speech about the policy last month, Robert Joseph, the State Department's point man for arms control and international security, said other nations and possibly terrorist groups were "acquiring capabilities to counter, attack and defeat U.S. space systems."
"No nation, no non-state actor, should be under the illusion that the United States will tolerate a denial of our right to the use of space for peaceful purposes," Joseph said on December 13.
In classified projects shielded from public debate, the United States has been widely reported to be developing satellite-killers of its own, using more advanced technologies, including lasers.
Caceres said he expected the test to strengthen the Pentagon's hand in seeking funds from Congress to press a host of costly military space programs, almost all of which are over budget and behind schedule.
"They are going to use this for as much as they can," he said, referring to Pentagon officials. Major corporate beneficiaries could be Lockheed Martin Corp., Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp., which build U.S. communications, surveillance and early-warning satellites, Caceres added.
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Problem is, denying space to all other nations would have the effect of denying it to our own as well, once the junk from those ASAT kills started taking out our own birds.
Oh be serious. What we do need to do is repeal OST so that we can weaponize space.
Waah waah waah. Wusses.
Back in the 1980s, Space Command was really unhappy about the Vought ASAT, because it would kill everyone's space assets, including ours. Basically, a full test series would produce a lot of orbiting shrapnel traveling in random directions; this shrapnel would eventually kill OTHER satellites, which in turn would generate more shrapnel; eventually, there would be so much crap flying around that it would kill any booster trying to deliver a payload to orbit.
Weaponizing space isn't illegal under the OST, unless you're insisting on launching nukes into space.
I would have to think we could shoot down any sattelite we want at anytime we choose. Perhaps I am wrong, but I bet the Chicoms weren't the first to think of this.
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Basically, China wants to be involved in Space Terrorism. A satellite-killing device is just a space based IED.
So you are saying that the US has never developed the capability, or tested it, when figuring out how to kill soviet satellites? C'mon now...we're just pissed that they figured out how to do it.
Pissed, but certainly not surprised. Heck, the kinetic kill vehicle probably had "Guidance by Loral" stenciled on it in Chinese.
What would a 10 megaton cause in space? Wondering.
Our Space Shuttle was designed to nab low orbit Soviet satellites and return them to earth in one orbit.
One hell of an EMP that would fry a huge amount of electronics wherever it went off. We did it once and learned the hard way to not do it again, kind of like a kid with matches.
It's apparently not a "civil" space program.
I hope we're at least even with them technologically in this area.
Kinda like checking your septic system with a Zippo?.
Interesting coincidence.
Like the Red Chinese government really cares what we say or think as a government. They're the big old yellow barn cat and we're a mouse they amuse themselves with by watching
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