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Krepon, Michael. "Seven Questions: Space Weapons." Foreign Policy. (July 2005). [ 3 quotes ]
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Space Debris from Space Weapon Use or Testing Threatens all Space Efforts
Once you blow something up in space, the debris lingers. It isn't like a sea battle where the remains of two warships sink to the bottom. The last anti-satellite weapons test was carried out in 1985 by the United States. We took aim at an old, dying Air Force satellite -- just as a test -- and it created 200 pieces of debris that were large enough to track. The last piece of debris finally left low Earth orbit 17 years later, and one of the pieces came within 1 mile of the International Space Station and could have done significant damage. ( More ... )
Krepon, Michael. "Seven Questions: Space Weapons." Foreign Policy. (July 2005). [ 3 quotes ]
Reading New National Space Policy with Previous Military Documents shows Clear Intent to Weaponize Outer Space
FP: Do you think that this policy is a signal that the current administration wants to develop space weapons?
TH: I do. I think that if you look at this policy and you look at military documents that came out before this policy—documents like Counterspace Operations, released by the Air Force in 2004, which talks very specifically about anti-satellite operations—then this new Bush policy opens the door to a new space weaponization policy. ( More ... )
Krepon, Michael. "Seven Questions: Space Weapons." Foreign Policy. (July 2005). [ 3 quotes ]
U.S. has Rudimentary Capabilities now to Disable Satellites, Advanced Techniques Possible in Next 10 Years
FP: If the United States were to start tomorrow, how far away would it be from developing functional space weapons?
TH: We could take out a satellite today with a missile. We did that in 1985. We’re experimenting with lasers on the ground that could disable, disrupt, and destroy satellites. We’re not there yet, and it’s probably another 10 years before we have an actual, working weapon. The limitations are the engineering, not the physics. We could launch—tomorrow if we wanted—a microsatellite designed to maneuver into a larger, target satellite. We have the prototype of that technology in space now. So we’re not far away from having those kinds of capabilities. And I would say that any other space-faring nation that wished to spend the money would not be far from developing those kinds of capabilities, either.
Krepon, Michael. "Seven Questions: Space Weapons." Foreign Policy. (July 2005). [ 3 quotes ]