Science
More signs of growing militarization of space, as the US says Russia's satellite weapon test
The U.S. Space Command has released information of an suspected anti-satellite missile drill that Russian suspects were now on orbit using an existing probe, The Verge says. The Russian satellite in question is the same one that made headlines back in early 2020 when an existing orbital U.S. spy satellite appeared to be working. The same spacecraft seems to have deployed some kind of Space Command projectile that tracks objects currently in orbit around Earth.
U.S. General John Raymond. Space Command told the Verge that this is "further proof of Russia's continuing attempts to build and test space-based systems," and that it is following a policy that could put U.S. and allied space assets at risk.
Militarization of space is not recent, and parties on both sides have been seeking the production of both offensive and defensive military technology in space.
Some of the biggest potential threats lies in missiles that might possibly be launched from satellites to destroy others — potentially disrupting vital ground communications, intelligence or space-based surveillance infrastructure that is used to support command and control operations on land battlefields and in the defense or surveillance of critical military properties.
Russia is not the only global force unnerving the US when it comes to the militarization of space: India's April test saw that nation demonstrate a ground-to-orbit anti-satellite missile system that the NASA Administrator denied was "not consistent with human spaceflight."
India is not the first country to demonstrate this kind of capability, however, as the US, China and Russia have all carried out similar tests.
The that possibility of orbit-to-orbit offensive weapons has had a drastic impact on how the military, including the U.S., has changed the priorities for in-space technology. For example , the Department of Defense and other U.S. defense and intelligence agencies seem to be moving attention away from huge, geosynchronous satellites that were enormously expensive and fairly unique on which they used on rely, and to smaller, more nimble satellites that could work in low Earth orbit and consist of constellations of built-in redundancy.
They have also strongly sponsored the production of small-scale commercial launcher start-ups that can provide more flexible orbital launch services than SpaceX and other existing providers.
Although there are certainly many outspoken opponents of the militarization of space, the fact remains that it is an environment where a number of global super-powers have invested billions, because the possible tactical advantage it offers is immense.
Based on the that frequency and public nature of these assessments, it is a segment where the US, in particular, is only too eager to pursue funding from the private sector, including technology start-ups, that can provide innovative and advanced solutions.
