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It has been described by some arms control experts as the beginning of a new arms race in space, pitting China against the United States.
Last week, according to US officials, China managed to destroy one of its own ageing weather satellites using a medium-range ballistic missile.
The satellite was some 500 miles (800km) above the earth.
At the very least, it represents the first significant escalation in the space weapons race in 20 years.
Only the United States and the former Soviet Union have previously destroyed targets in space and that was back in the 1980s.
Although this time China used a relatively old-fashioned ballistic missile to target the satellite, it is also thought to be working on far more sophisticated laser technology to do the job.
US officials have been alarmed by the test itself and the failure of China to announce what it was doing either publicly or privately.
Satellites are a weak point. You could never attack a US nuclear power station for instance all to easily, or an aircraft carrier, but a satellite is vulnerable and can be picked off. Spy satellites can easily be picked off; and it would disrupt potentially, weapon guiding, global positioning, sea, air and land navigation, all communications including civilian and military and a lot more...
I heard in the guardian that if China shot down 40 or 50 US satellites, the military would be blinded, and the pentagon without navigation or surveillance.
The Defence ministry in china denys all knowledge of the test, and claim it did not happen.
I don't understand why they cant just place explosives on the satellite beforehand; therefore, China, the US or Russia don't have to pump tons of Ozone destroying gases from a missile to get rid of a satellite, when they could easily blow it up with the press of button...
The amount of heat and pressure that is caused when they launch a satellite could make the explosives very unstable. You could blow it before you even get it into space.
And what if China wanted to blow up say, 40 or 50 US satellites?
I somehow dont think putting explosives on those beforehand is an option
The debris, I was reading in the Economist is very dangerous in space to other missions and satellites, which is another reason why in the "Star Wars" of the 1980s, the soviet USSR and the USA agreed to stop.
I found this news that kept a low profile, last year
Quote:
China has secretly fired powerful laser weapons designed to disable American spy satellites by "blinding" their sensitive surveillance devices, it was reported yesterday.
How it works
The hitherto unreported attacks have been kept secret by the Bush administration for fear that it would damage attempts to co-opt China in diplomatic offensives against North Korea and Iran.
Sources told the military affairs publication Defense News that there had been a fierce internal battle within Washington over whether to make the attacks public. In the end, the Pentagon's annual assessment of the growing Chinese military build-up barely mentioned the threat.
Reported at The Telegraph newspaper site
This does not destroy the satellite, but blonds the satellite as it passes over China...
A network of Chinese industrial spies has been established across Europe as the Communist government's intelligence agencies shift their resources and attention from traditional Cold War espionage towards new forms of subterfuge aimed at achieving global commercial dominance.
...and look at this...
Quote:
A former British official, who runs a private consultancy specialising in fraud and risk management in Beijing, said that the Ministry of State Security systematically extracted the information it wanted from Chinese people travelling aboard, including tourists, businessmen and scientists.
"Any ethnic Chinese with relatives or business interests in China is vulnerable," he said. "There are a large number of people who live at or travel to key locations who are regularly debriefed or given orders to obtain various types of strategic information that Beijing finds is militarily or economically useful.
But it looks like although they are a massive threat, and seek world domination (what else?), the US seem to want to stay on their side (fro now) not only for economic reasons, but for strategic reasons in case they want to invade North Korea or Iran.
From Defence News...
Quote:
Pentagon officials, however, have kept quiet about China’s efforts as part of a Bush administration policy to not anger Beijing, which is a leading U.S. trading partner and seen as key to dealing with North Korea and Iran.
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