![]() The US military is increasingly dependent on satellites to determine what it does on the ground, guiding munitions with space-based lasers and satellites as well as using such assets to monitor for missile launches and track its forces. He added: “We stand ready and committed to deter aggression and defend our nation and our allies from hostile acts in space.” “Russia publicly claims it is working to prevent the transformation of outer space into a battlefield, yet at the same time Moscow continues to weaponize space by developing and fielding on-orbit and ground-based capabilities that seek to exploit US reliance on space-based systems,” Dickinson said. Following the launch of an anti-satellite missile by Russia last December, Gen James Dickinson, the US space command commander, criticized the country for “persistent testing” of “space-based and ground-based weapons intended to target and destroy satellites”. Russia conducted three anti-satellite missile tests in 2020, according to. The US fired an “air-launched ballistic missile” from a B-47 bomber at the Explorer VI satellite, but missed. The US performed the first anti-satellite weapon test in 1959, when satellites themselves were new and rare. The Nasa astronauts Raja Chari, Tom Marshburn, Kayla Barron, and the European Space Agency astronaut Matthias Maurer floated into their SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft for safety, according to a report by Spaceflight Now.Īt the same time, the Russian cosmonauts Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dubrov and the Nasa astronaut Mark Vande Hei boarded a Soyuz spacecraft on the Russian segment, Spaceflight Now said.Įxperts say anti-satellite weapons that shatter their targets pose a space hazard by creating a cloud of fragments that can collide with other objects, which can set off a chain reaction of projectiles through Earth orbit. “Friends, everything is regular with us! We continue to work according to the program,” Anton Shkaplerov, the current commander of the outpost, tweeted. The orbit of the object, which forced the crew today to move into spacecraft according to standard procedures, has moved away from the ISS orbit. The crew is routinely performing operations according to the flight program. The test clearly demonstrated that despite Russian claims that it opposed the weaponisation of outer space, it was “willing to imperil the exploration and use of outer space by all nations through its reckless and irresponsible behavior”, Blinken said in a statement. But hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces were going undetected – “any one of which can do enormous damage if it hits in the right place”.Īntony Blinken, the US secretary of state, also condemned Russia’s action and said satellites throughout Earth’s orbit were also now in jeopardy. His assessment was based on the risk from debris big enough to track. Nelson said the astronauts now faced a four times greater risk than normal with the ISS passing near or through the debris cloud every 90 minutes. “It’s unbelievable that the Russian government would do this test and threaten not only international astronauts, but their own cosmonauts that are on board the station as well as the three people on China’s space station.” This is unconscionable,” Nasa administrator Bill Nelson said. The pods can detach from the ISS and fly crews back to Earth. Astronauts aboard the ISS were forced to float into special “lifeboat” pods following the release of the debris.
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