The United States decided earlier this year to end testing of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons, and now it hopes to get the rest of the world to follow suit. Later this month, the US will introduce a resolution in the United Nations General Assembly to ban the use of such weapons. The US government has strategic reasons to want ASAT out of the picture, but this is also something that space agencies around the world have been hoping to see.
Vice President Kamala Harris announced the self-imposed ban on ASAT use in April at a speech at Vandenberg Space Force Base. The US has a huge number of orbital assets, many of which have national security uses. As ASAT designs become more advanced, the possibility these assets could be destroyed weakens US dominance in space. Securing a ban on ASAT testing would help lock in America’s control of space around Earth, but that doesn’t mean it’s a bad idea.
The decision to end US ASAT tests came just months after Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon, firing a projectile into its Kosmos-1408 satellite. The impact caused the derelict Kosmos-1408 to splinter, creating more than 1,500 pieces of trackable debris. The test increased the impact risk for the International Space Station (ISS), resulting in condemnation from NASA and other space agencies. And that’s just the most recent example of ASAT testing. In 2019, India came under fire for using an anti-satellite missile (above) to destroy the Microsat-R spacecraft. Although the test was conducted at a lower altitude to limit the potential debris spread, it still produced hundreds of trackable fragments that posed a danger to other spacecraft.
After decades of orbital operations, humanity has filled low-Earth orbit with a lot of junk. Technologies to remove old satellites have been slow to develop, too. Even a tiny bit of scrap like a screw could have enough impact force to punch a damaging hole in a crewed spacecraft or totally destroy a satellite. Scientists have also speculated about an effect known as Kessler Syndrome, in which the density of space junk becomes so high that an unstoppable cascade of destruction washes across the sky, potentially making space inaccessible for years. So far, the European Union, Canada, and New Zealand have offered support for the UN resolution to ban ASAT testing, reports Breaking Defense.
Today, there are more objects than ever before in orbit — companies like SpaceX have deployed thousands of new satellites in the last few years. The cost of reaching orbit is also decreasing thanks to reusable launch vehicles, so we expect this trend to continue. With more clutter, each satellite smasher test risks setting up a disastrous future collision. A ban on ASAT testing could help prevent that, but no one is saying anything about banning the development of ASAT technology. In the event of an all-out conflict, satellites may be a prime target, and the consequences could be dire.
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