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US says Russia likely launched anti-satellite weapon

21 points| jdmark | 1 year ago |bbc.com

8 comments

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[+] dotBen|1 year ago|reply
Something like this will either electronically disable a satellite or physically destroy it.

The worry with physically destroying satellites is the amount of debris created could rapidly realize the Kessler Syndrome which in turn could prohibit humanity from launching into space.

It does depend how you physically destroy the satellite, but slamming something into the target satellite to destroy it is the easiest thing to do than latching on and deorbiting the target. A kinetic destruction approach is probably repeatable whereas deorbiting probably destroys the aggressor satellite as well.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

[+] alephnerd|1 year ago|reply
> The worry with physically destroying satellites is the amount of debris created could rapidly realize the Kessler Syndrome which in turn could prohibit humanity from launching into space.

Some policymakers are increasingly scared of this, but everyone is now in a zero sum arms race globally.

It's not just big countries/blocs like the US, Russia, China, NATO+, or India that have these capabilities, but now regional powers like Iran, North Korea, Turkiye, UAE, Saudi, Pakistan, Brazil, Indonesia, etc.

40 years ago, only 2 countries could build nuclear submarines - now ~50 can.

30 years ago, only 2 countries could build 4th gen fighter jets - now ~10 can.

It takes 2 regional powers to enter a tussle that spirals into a semi-global war (eg. Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Gaza, Myanmar Civil War, Syrian Civil War, Sudanese Civil War, Ethiopian Civil War, DRC Civil War, Libyan Civil War, etc)