Part 1 of 2 Parts
The U.S. Government has declared that it will no longer be carrying out the development and testing of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons. In a public statement made during a visit to the Vandenberg Space Force Base on the central coast of California, U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris confirms that this new policy has the primary purpose of motivating other space-faring nations to also halt the development and testing of ASAT weapons. She added that the U.S. announcement represents an important step in an attempt to establish “space norms” for all nations to follow to insure peace and stability in Earth orbit.
ASAT weapons research began in the early years of the Cold War just after the end of World War II. According to the Naval Institute Guide to World Naval Weapons Systems, ASAT weapons were designed for strategic and tactical military purposes against satellites of other nations. The U. S. military has long used satellites in Earth orbit for navigation, communication and to gather intelligence on the movement of enemy forces and activities through sophisticated satellite imaging. These are known as spy satellites.
ASAT weapons have never actually been used in warfare. However, China, India, Russia and the U.S. have all demonstrated their capability to deploy ASAT weapons. So far, these ASAT weapons have only been used by space-faring nations against their own targets. Old, decommissioned and demonstration satellites have been used for these purposes.
The purpose of the ASAT tests that destroy a nation’s own satellites is to demonstrate that that nation can destroy a satellite in orbit whenever it wants to. It is saying to other nations with space programs that, “If you threaten our infrastructure, we can retaliate.” However, unfortunately, each such successful ASAT weapon test throws thousands of new pieces of debris into Earth orbit. There is so much debris already in orbit that it may soon be dangerous to any launch vehicle into space.
The risk of space junk may not seem to be that big a concern at first glance. Space is huge and it might seem that the odds of anything accidentally hitting anything else in orbit is very small. However, it is important to keep in mind that each object from fleck of paint to the International Space Station is hurtling around the Earth at enormous speed. And every single launch puts more debris in orbit.
The United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) maintains an index of objects that have been launched into space. As of January 2022, this index contains eight thousand two hundred and sixty individual satellites. This represents an increase of almost twelve percent over the previous twelve months. As Starlink and its rivals settle down to launching their mega-constellations of communication satellites, this growth of orbital objects will only increase. There have already been collisions between satellites as well as a lot of near misses. It is not unusual for owners of satellites to have to dodge each other’s satellites.
Please read Part 2 next