U.S. to Forgo Tests of Anti-Satellite Missiles Over Debris Risks
U.S. to Forgo Tests of Anti-Satellite Missiles Over Debris Risks
(Bloomberg) -- Vice President Kamala Harris will announce Monday the U.S. won’t test some anti-satellite weapons in space, a move aimed at pressuring rivals Russia and China.
Banning “reckless and irresponsible” anti-satellite missile tests should become the “international norm,” Harris’s office said in a statement. During a visit to the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California she will announce that the U.S. will forgo tests of what are known as “direct-ascent” anti-satellite weapons -- generally, missiles designed to destroy spacecraft in orbit by impact.
The ban will prevent test debris from damaging other satellites and reduce the chances of conflict between nations in space, Harris’s office said.
The move comes amid deep tensions between the U.S. and Russia over President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow blew up a dead satellite last November in a test of a ground-launched anti-satellite missile. The resulting debris raised concern that orbiting space junk might endanger the crew of the International Space Station or threaten commercial spacecraft launched by companies such as SpaceX and the Boeing Co.-Lockheed Martin Corp. United Launch Alliance joint venture.
“By blasting debris across space, this irresponsible act endangered the satellites of other nations, as well as astronauts in the International Space Station,” Harris, who leads the National Space Council, said in December.
Monday’s announcement is part of an effort by the council to establish norms “that advance U.S. interests and preserve the security and sustainability of space,” Harris’s office said Monday.
“The long-lived debris created by these tests now threaten satellites and other space objects that are vital to all nations’ security, economic, and scientific interests, and increases risk to astronauts in space. Overall, these tests jeopardize the long-term sustainability of outer space and imperil the exploration and use of space by all nations,” she said in her statement.
China conducted a similar anti-satellite missile test in 2007.
Victoria Samson, Washington director of the Secure World Foundation, which advocates for peaceful ventures in outer space, called the Harris announcement “a really big deal” because it’s “the first time in a long time that the U.S. has acknowledged that there is benefit to its willingly constraining its freedom of action in space.”
She added this marks “the first possibility for real forward movement in multilateral space discussions in a while” to ban tests.
But Representative Mike Rogers of Alabama, the top Republican on the House Armed Services Committee, said the administration’s decision “does nothing to deter our adversaries in an escalating war- fighting domain. In fact, I’m worried it will have the opposite effect.”
Rogers added that Russia and China “have demonstrated their anti-satellite capabilities -- it would be naive to think they don’t intend to use them against our assets.”
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