Anti-Satellite weapons credible danger or just a paper threat (11 Photos)

Anti-Satellite weapons credible danger or just a paper threat (11 Photos)

 

 March 3, 2015

Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are Space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic military purposes.

 

More than 950 operating satellites currently orbit the Earth, providing information and other services essential to our civilian, scientific, and economic life, as well as our military operations. As their importance increases, so do concerns about keeping them safe—because for as long as there have been satellites, there have been plans for interfering with them.

 

The act of destroying a satellite can damage the space environment by creating a dangerous amount of space debris. What’s more, the impairment or loss of a satellite, such as one used for reconnaissance, can quickly escalate a conflict or generate other unpredictable and dangerous consequences. And short of an actual attack on a satellite, even the targeting of satellites or the construction of space-based weapons could precipitate an arms race with its own damaging and far-reaching consequences.