The quickly evolving threat in space was one of the main drivers behind establishing the U.S. As with the Starfish test, the impact created a large cloud of orbiting debris that even put the International Space Station at risk for awhile. Russia also generated headlines around the world when it conducted a more traditional anti-satellite test in 2021, where it shot down one of its own systems. NRO is the National Reconnaissance Office. DeAnna Burt, said at a 2022 space conference. When one of those nesting doll systems “parks next to one of our high-value NRO capabilities, they are now holding that asset at risk,” the deputy chief of space operations of the U.S. In 2019, the Russians maneuvered a nesting doll near a U.S. Russia has developed a “nesting doll” satellite that opens up to reveal a smaller satellite, and then that one opens to reveal a projectile capable of destroying nearby satellites. In the past few years China has tested a satellite with a robotic arm that can maneuver to a system, grab it, and move it out of orbit. economy could be an intimidating equalizer, and would just be the latest development from both Russia’s and China’s efforts to weaponize space, he said. It’s the ability to do that kind of damage that makes it logical that the Russians would want to put a warhead in space, especially if they see their military and economy weakened after fighting a U.S.-backed Ukraine for the past two years, said John Ferrari, a nonresident senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute.Ī space-based weapon that could cripple U.S. White House national security spokesman John Kirby declined to say Thursday whether the emerging Russian weapon is nuclear capable, noting only that it would violate an international treaty that prohibits the deployment of “nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction” in orbit. and the Soviet Union signed a nuclear test ban treaty a year later, in 1963, which prohibited further testing of nuclear weapons in space. When the former Soviet Union conducted its own test as part of Project K, it did so at a slightly lower orbit and “fried systems on the ground, including underground cables and a power plant,” Kristensen said. The debris left satellites in its path malfunctioning “along the lines of the old Saturday matinee one-reeler,” the 1982 report said. Radio systems and the electrical grid on Hawaii were temporarily knocked out, said Hans Kristensen, director of the Nuclear Information Project at the Federation of American Scientists. The blast disabled several satellites, including a British one named Ariel, as radioactive particles from the burst came in contact with them. “The large amount of enerqy released at such a high altitude by the detonation caused widespread auroras throughout the Pacific,” according to a 1982 Department of Defense report on the tests. The missile was launched about 800 miles (1,300 kilometers) from Hawaii but the effects from the tests were seen around the equator. is doing about all the space threats it faces. Here’s a look at what’s happened in the past, why Russia may be pursuing a nuclear weapon for space now, and what the U.S. It would also not be the first time a nuclear warhead has been detonated in space, or the only capability China and Russia are pursuing to disable or destroy a U.S. satellite communications - and those satellites have become increasingly vulnerable. So much of the country’s infrastructure is now dependent on U.S. But reports of the new anti-satellite weapon build on longstanding worries about space threats from Russia and China. The White House has said the danger isn’t imminent. These are among the reasons why there was alarm this week over reports that Russia may be pursuing nuclear weapons in space. Aviation, rail and car traffic could come to a halt. satellites? Your home’s electrical and water systems could fail. WASHINGTON (AP) - What would it mean if Russia used nuclear warheads to destroy U.S.
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