Passions continue for a third day after Russia’s successful test of an anti-satellite weapon
A rocket launched from the Plesetsk launch site hit the target – an old Soviet satellite, which is no longer needed – with precision, as Sergei Shoigu said. The alarmed Americans at NASA immediately requested an emergency meeting with Roscosmos representatives. It is scheduled for today, November 17. They are worried. I am sure our specialists will reassure their colleagues. Engineering professionals always speak the same language and will find the right arguments to confirm that there is no threat to joint projects. The ISS will still fly…
Much more interesting are the military and political implications of the event. They can be assessed by the comment of our Foreign Ministry, which can only be envied for its composure in confronting the distortion of facts by the US State Department. Russian diplomats reasonably point out that doctrinal documents created under Donald Trump`s Space Forces enshrine goals of total military superiority in orbit, including a self-assigned right to launch a preemptive strike. Though, the course on militarization of the space was pursued by Washington before the formal separation of the Space Forces from other agencies.
Suffice it to recall that the Soviet Buran project was a symmetrical response to U.S. military capabilities in space, among other things. Moscow reasonably believed that American shuttles, if desired, could become carriers of military, including nuclear, charges and, by maneuvering in orbit, could deliver them to any, the most unexpected, point of our country. As to the tests of anti-satellite weapons, the USA began to conduct them in the 1950s and has never stopped. In the latest epoch (2008) they defiantly hit their own spy satellite USA-193 at the altitude of 250 km with the ship-based antimissile.
This and many other facts compelled the Russian Foreign Ministry once again to formulate a proposal on the need to agree on an international legally binding instrument to prevent an arms race in outer space. Even an abbreviation was coined – PAROS. It is proposed to introduce a ban on the deployment of any kind of weapons in space, as well as on “the threat or use of force in, from or against space”, including anti-satellite and anti-missile systems. What is already in place, if any, should be dismantled. A similar Russian-Chinese document could be a prototype for such a treaty.
In the meantime, the only global instrument to keep space weapon-free is Russia’s voluntary commitment not to be the first to place weapons in space. So far 30 states have joined the initiative. It is easy to guess that we are not just talking about space powers. Only a handful of countries have the privilege of being called such. However, this is a political issue. Moscow thus set an example and confirmed the seriousness of its peaceful intentions, knocking arguments out of the hands of potential critics in advance. While you are thinking, we are already doing.
But the Americans do not need it. In the space sphere they act in approximately the same way as elsewhere – they withdraw from all treaties (or do not conclude new ones), which in one way or another bind their freedom of action.
This is what those who want total domination do. Specific US plans for the militarisation of space also leave no doubt about their desire to one day take over the entire world. The theory and practice of military affairs to ensure victory presupposes the capture of dominant heights in any situation. The Americans want to seize the absolute altitude – space. And who is the aggressor here?
Thus, unmanned space plane Boeing X-37, created and even tested by the USA, can stay for a long time in the orbit up to 750 km high, operate and carry a payload. Russia’s queries to the US about the purpose of the vehicle remain unanswered. However, the characteristics and functionality of the shuttle unambiguously point to its ability to engage in orbital activities, including flibustering. For example, by removing alien satellites from orbit and placing them in its cargo bay. Now, after Russia’s successful anti-satellite missile test, the Pentagon will think twice before using the X-37 for space piracy. The space punking has sobered up the Americans.
The important point is that Russia is not only not the first, but also not the second in counteracting alien military objects in space. Back in the mid-1990s, China tested a similar system. Now that China is becoming a de facto great power commensurate with the United States (which, it should be recalled, has its own station in orbit), Washington should be concerned about Beijing’s presence in space, not Moscow. It seems that the Americans have already understood that. During the just-concluded virtual summit between Joe Biden and Xi Jinping, the U.S. president actually backpedaled on containing the Middle Kingdom. Too late.
Another successful space power threatens to become India. In terms of anti-satellite weapons, it already has become one after a successful test in 2019. There was howling then too, screaming about space debris and the danger Delhi had allegedly exposed American astronauts to, but in a little while the debris, having lost energy, safely burned up in the dense layers of the atmosphere, and the fact of India’s possession of anti-satellite technology imprinted itself in the minds of its potential adversaries seriously and for long. There is information that Israel has an analogue of such technology. In any case, Tel Aviv has been testing it.
Thus, the pool of powers that can easily and simply shoot down someone else’s military spacecraft from orbit has already grown to four or five countries. Russia is just one of many. It seems that the Boeing X-37 will remain out of business… And if this is the case, Moscow should be listened to proposals that it makes as to control of non-proliferation of weapons in space. Of course, Washington is hurt and disappointed, and feels sorry for its failed triumph, but what can it do? And it is not the first time. More than once in history Moscow has used iron-clad arguments to force its overseas opponents to conclude strategic agreements in the political and military spheres. The time has come.
Sergey Aksyonov, RT