China anti satelite test

[Kärnfysikern]

http://www.spacewar.com/reports/Chin...utcry_999.html

China's test of an anti-satellite weapon triggered charges Friday that it had caused dangerous debris to scatter into low Earth orbit, posing a potential threat to commercial, scientific and military satellites of other nations.
"It looks really terrible. I am shocked," said a space scientist, explaining that the reported test took place in a region thickly populated by satellites, including those used for monitoring storms and climate change.

"Space is not a playground for playing games," the scientist, outraged, said in an interview with AFP. "It's meant for the benefit of mankind."

http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/07012....8t2ihzsi.html

The United States and Australia both said they were waiting to hear from Beijing after it reportedly blasted one of its own weather satellites on January 11.

"We've asked the Chinese to give us some greater details about what they did, why they did it, and explain it in greater detail to us simply because of the concerns that we have about this issue," said State Department spokesman Tom Casey.

http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/07012....0qpxmfz6.html

The Indian Express voiced worries over India's own space and military ambitions.

"It threatens our own expanding civilian space assets, undermines the credibility of our nuclear deterrent, and exposes New Delhi's lack of a military space strategy," it said in an editorial.

"India can either respond with a robust military space effort in collaboration with the US or consign itself to the status of a second-rate power in Asia."

http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/07012....ig918j8h.html

Taiwan on Saturday expressed concern after rival China reportedly shot down a space satellite for the first time, saying the act would negatively affect peace between them and in the region.
"We urge the international community to express their concerns over China's move, which would have negative impact on peace in the Taiwan Strait and in the region," said cabinet spokesman Cheng Wen-tsang.

"The satellite shown-down showed that China has expanded its arms race to space and that its so-called 'peaceful rise' is merely an illusion," he said.

[Kärnfysikern]

Is a new arms race sneak starting? Or well not realy arms race, more like china playing catch up.

http://www.spacedaily.com/2006/07012....v53nzd8a.html

China's reported shooting down of an orbiting satellite will bolster hawks in Washington concerned that Beijing poses a strategic threat to the United States, a newspaper warned here Saturday.
"Good shooting, yes, but is it good politics?" the Financial Times asked in an editorial.

"The US clearly sees it as part of an effort by China to develop anti-satellite capability that could threaten its extensive space assets," the newspaper said.

"The Chinese test may or may not lead to a new arms race in space. But it will certainly strengthen the hand of hawks in Washington who regard Chinese power as a strategic threat to the US," it added.

It said China, which "is not known for foolhardy or precipitate action," may have been unnerved by two developments.

"First, the US nuclear co-operation agreement with nuclear-armed India is the clearest indication yet of Washington's wish to build up a counterweight to China in Asia and the Pacific," it said.

"But second, last summer the Bush administration came out with a new policy asserting that the US regarded space as important a dimension for the nation's security as air or sea power," it added.

"It may have been no coincidence that, within weeks, China ruffled American feathers by using a ground-based laser to illuminate a US satellite -- and highlight its own reach into space," it said.

The United States, whose spy agencies claimed China destroyed the ageing weather satellite on January 11, and its Asian allies have expressed misgivings.

The impact reportedly occurred more than 500 miles (800 kilometers) above Earth, high enough to hit orbiting satellites.

China has said only that the world should not feel threatened by the development but refused to confirm it had happened.

If confirmed, it would be the world's first downing of a satellite since the 1980s, when the Soviet Union and the United States both destroyed space hardware in orbit.

The two superpowers ceased the tests largely because of the problem of debris.

[mcpeepants]

it's catch up at the least. I read in another article that the US already has the technology to knock out spy satellites. but it might start something with Japan:

Japan expresses concern over China test

By KANA INAGAKI, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 19, 4:47 AM ET

TOKYO - Japan is concerned by a Chinese anti-satellite weapons test and has demanded a full explanation from Beijing, Japan's top government spokesman said Friday.
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Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki also suggested that China's lack of transparency over its military development could trigger suspicions about its motives in the region.

"The Chinese side is being asked firmly to demonstrate transparency, and the first step is to provide a clear explanation of this incident," Shiozaki told reporters.

The United States, which bases some 50,000 troops in Japan, said China earlier this month conducted a test in which an old Chinese weather satellite was destroyed by a missile.

Analysts said China's weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as U.S. spy satellites, so the test represented an indirect threat to U.S. defense systems.

"From the viewpoint of the peaceful use of space and security, the Japanese government is naturally concerned about this act of destroying an artificial satellite with a ballistic missile," Shiozaki said.

Japan's Foreign Minister Taro Aso criticized China's move as saying that Beijing did not give any advance notice to Tokyo and debris from the test could scatter.

"I doubt if we could call this a peaceful use," Aso was quoted as saying by the Asahi newspaper.

The test comes at a sensitive time for Sino-Japanese relations.

Ties between the two had sharply deteriorated in recent years amid disputes over territorial issues, use of maritime resources and interpretations of wartime history.

Relations have recovered since Prime Minister Shinzo Abe took office in September and immediately made a fence-mending trip to Beijing. Both sides have publicly called for further improvements in ties.

Chinese military modernization has been a key security concern in Japan, a top U.S. ally in Asia. Aso has in the past called China a military threat.

[Kärnfysikern]

Yeah the articles said that both the us and russians has tested anti satelite weapons before but only tested once because it caused to much debrises in orbit.

I guess if it triggers arms race it will be with india

[J.S.N.]

bush should have signed on to discontinue such programs a few years back when the chinese wanted to. it wasn't exactly hard for them to get the technology; they bought it from lockheed martin.