China Makes a Mess

The People’s Republic of China decides it needs to field test an advanced technology project so they pick one of their old satellites orbiting about 500 miles above the Earth and blow it into a whole bunch of pieces. The research and development budget is now justified.

Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon: Although more of a "policy weapon" at this time, the test shows that the Chinese military can threaten the imaging reconnaissance satellites operated by the U. S., Japan, Russia, Israel and Europe.

Hot Air has a round up of reactions. The United States and the Soviet Union dabbled with anti-satellite weapons in the 1980’s before both sides abandoned the pursuit. Apparently filling space with thousands of high velocity projectiles tends to be a detriment to the commercial life of expensive pieces of orbiting technology.

Arms Control Wonk: Of course, we canceled that program for reasons that are all too obvious at this point: A hit-to-kill ASAT creates all kinds of debris that might threaten to make collateral damage of our own satellites. … This raises an interesting public policy question because we are so much more dependent on commercial and military satellites that the ASAT options available to us are much more complicated than those available to the Chinese. This is a race that favors them, unfortunately.

Now 500 miles is a long way up, but on the other hand space goes much, much higher.

Washington Post: Many sensitive communications satellites are much higher, at about 22,000 miles above earth, and officials said yesterday that the recent test does not prove that China has the capability to disrupt those systems.

All things considered, however, the Chinese need to be told that littering is bad and pollution is worse bad. I expect the Sierra Club will release a statement reminding the PRC that outer space is not a complete vacuum but rather a low density wilderness that needs to be preserved in nearly pristine condition for future generations. It is therefore good to live by the motto: take only photos, leave only ion trails.