* Astronomy

Blobrana · L

RE: Chinese anti-satellite test

Blobrana · L

China has confirmed it carried out a test that destroyed a satellite, in a move that caused international alarm.
Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said a test had been carried out but insisted China was committed to the "peaceful development of outer space".
The US backed reports last week that China had used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite.

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Blobrana · L

China’s destruction of a satellite will have left debris in space that could endanger other orbiting instruments, but the extent of the hazard that it poses will depend on the circumstances of the hit. The weather satellite is thought to have been blown apart using a solid kinetic projectile rather than an explosive — a “bullet” rather than a “bomb” — and this will have limited the size of the cloud of “space junk” that it created. Such debris will still be much more dangerous to other satellites in the same orbit than the obsolete satellite itself would have been, because there will now be many smaller hazardous objects scattered over a larger area, following more unpredictable paths. Read more

Blobrana · L

Russian Defence Minister Sergei Ivanov has called the reports that a Chinese ballistic missile has hit a satellite highly exaggerated rumours.

“I have heard reports to that effect, and they are quite abstract. I’m afraid they don’t have such an anti-satellite basis. The rumours are highly exaggerated” - Sergei Ivanov.

On Friday, World media reported that China had shot down one of their old weather satellites with a ballistic missile.

Source Mosnews

Blobrana · L

China is facing international criticism over a weapons test it reportedly carried out in space last week.
Japan has expressed concern, as have the US and Australia.
It is thought that the Chinese used a ground-based medium-range ballistic missile to destroy a weather satellite that had been launched in 1999.
Correspondents say this is the first known satellite intercept test for more than 20 years. China's foreign ministry refused to confirm or deny the report.

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Blobrana · L

The United States, Australia and Canada have voiced concerns to China over the first known satellite-killing test in space in more than 20 years, the White House said Thursday.

“The U.S. believes China’s development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area... We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese” - Gordon Johndroe, National Security Council spokesman.

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