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Chinese It launched a new satellite that analysts say could be used as a weapon that could capture and crush American satellites.
The Shijian-21 satellite was sent atop a rocket booster from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center on Sunday, apparently to clean up “space debris,” according to Beijing’s state-run space company China Aerospace Science and Technology Corp. The company said the satellite was ” tasked with demonstrating technologies to mitigate and neutralize space debris.”
The robotic satellite launch followed a dubious recent test of a new hypersonic missile, which Chinese officials say is a peaceful space experiment.
General James Dickinson, Commander of the US Space Command, Air Force Command, told Congress in April that spacecraft such as the Shijian-21 Chinese Seeking “space superiority through space and space attack systems”.
Gene. “One important object is Shijian-17, a Chinese satellite with robotic arms,” Dickinson said. “Space-based robotic arm technology could be used in a future system to capture other satellites.”
The Shijian-17 satellite is used for communications and tracking space debris. It is said to have the ability to maneuver near orbiting satellites and capture or crush the spacecraft.
General Dickinson said the co-orbiting robotic spacecraft is part of a growing arsenal of space weapons being fielded by the Chinese military.
The Shijian series of satellites were first observed in 2013 when three of them were launched and US intelligence craft detected unusual movements. The Shiyan-7 or (Experiment-7), Chuangxin-3 (Novelty-3) and Shijian-15 (Experiment-15) satellites each weighed about 22 pounds or less.
Of the three spacecraft, Shijian-15 was the most unusual, according to US officials. The satellite carried a robotic arm with a tuft at the end.
Other Chinese space weapons include various land-launched anti-satellite missiles and electronic jammers and lasers that can hit satellites in low, medium and high altitude orbits.
“We see the capabilities of ASAT rising directly, from anti-satellite capabilities to the orbital activities they do with that capability,” he said.
The general said that China’s buildup of space weapons is also a hoax. “By the way, Chinese Gene. Dickinson “continues to maintain their public stance against the weaponization of space.”
Chinese used civilian space development, such as debris reduction, to test co-orbital anti-satellite weapons.
Michael J. Listner, a space security analyst, said China’s capabilities are difficult to pinpoint because of the dual-use nature of space technology.
“Technology with peaceful uses can be used for non-peaceful uses,” he said.
Efforts to ban ASAT systems in the 1960s and 1970s were hampered by difficulties in verifying space technology. The development of missile defenses also increased the verification problem.
In 2008, the US military, codenamed Operation Burnt Frost, used a modified anti-missile interceptor to shoot down a downed US satellite.
The co-orbital ASAT development effort through Shijian-21 highlights the issue.
“A mission that could have peaceful use in orbital debris reduction could be used as a co-orbiting ASAT,” said Mr Listner of Space Law and Policy Solutions.
Chinese “Trust us, he says, but the classified nature of the mission and the PRC’s development of counter-space capabilities says otherwise.”
Retired Indian Colonel Vinayak Bhat, a former image intelligence analyst, said the launch of the Shijian-21 was suspicious because Chinese He said he had never shown any interest in reducing space debris before, launching larger rockets and increasing debris.
“This robotic arm technology is dual use in nature and will certainly be used as a space weapon to intercept and disable/destroy enemy satellites,” said Colonel Bhat. “Chinese The deployment of such dual-use satellites strongly recommends [the Chinese Communist Party’s] intent to militarize space.
A Defense Intelligence Agency report concluded that the Chinese military sees space warfare as a way to deter and counter US military intervention in a regional conflict.
“[People’s Liberation Army] The report’s analysis of US and allied military operations states that ‘destroying or capturing satellites and other sensors’ will make it harder to use precision-guided weapons. “Furthermore, PLA writings suggest that reconnaissance, communications, navigation and early warning satellites may be among the targets of attacks designed to ‘blind and deafen the enemy’.”
Chinese state media does not give additional details about the launch of the Shijian-21.
The state-run China Daily stated that small objects traveling at high speeds through space could provide as much energy as a grenade. More than 100 million pieces of space debris are estimated to be in orbit, ranging in size from a few inches to floating garbage weighing several tons.
Liu Jing, deputy director of China’s Space Debris Monitoring and Application Center, said that about 50% of space debris is the result of fragmented spacecraft. Ms. Liu said nothing in the China Daily report about China’s 2007 ASAT missile test, which left tens of thousands of dangerous floating debris in space.
Since the 2007 test and the world’s revolt against the test, Chinese it has not conducted similar ASAT missile tests, but instead disguised its space warfare attack capabilities as anti-missile tests or civilian investigations.
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