Explosions in space: a Russian show of strength

In the small hours

In the small hours of 15 November, the crew of the International
Space Station (ISS) was woken by an emergency call from mission
control in Houston, said Brandon Specktor on Space.com^[1] (New York). More than
1,500 pieces of debris were hurtling towards them at up to
17,500mph; they were to take cover in the capsules that had carried
them to the ISS.

The debris was the remains of a Soviet-era spy satellite (known
as Kosmos-1408) which had been blown up in a Russian missile test.
Ultimately, it passed without damaging the ISS, but the furious
response from Nasa – which accused Moscow of recklessly
jeopardising the ISS and the lives of the seven astronauts on board
(including two Russians) – was entirely justified.

Russia insisted the fragments didn’t pose any threat to space
activity, yet “even a scrap of metal the size of a pea can become a
potentially deadly missile” in space; Russia’s actions could have
“obliterated” the ISS.

“Space junk” is hardly a new phenomenon, said Ramin Skibba
in Wired^[2] (San Francisco). The
Pentagon now tracks more than 27,000 pieces of debris, including
dead spacecraft and used-up rocket boosters. The US is even working
with private firms on technology that can pick up debris and drag
it out of satellites’ paths.

China, the US and India have all conducted satellite-destroying
missile tests like this one, said Valery Shiryaev in Novaya
Gazeta (Moscow). But there’s a key difference: all of them targeted
“objects in much lower orbits”, meaning most of the fragments
“burnt up in the Earth’s atmosphere”. No one had destroyed
satellites above the orbit of the permanently inhabited ISS, a step
fraught with risk. “We are the first, alas.”

This incident shows that space is becoming increasingly
militarised, said Etienne Meyer-Vacherand in Le Temps^[3] (Geneva). The current
treaties governing space are hard to enforce, and the great powers
are now preparing to “defend their interests beyond the Earth’s
atmosphere”.

This show of strength in orbit was probably an example of
“radical deterrence”, said Brandon J. Weichert in Asia Times^[4] (Hong Kong). Moscow
recently clashed with Washington over its military build-up near
Ukraine. It knows the US relies more heavily on satellites “than
any other nation on Earth” – for civilian infrastructure and for
its military, which could be left “impotent” if key satellites were
disabled. In endangering the ISS so recklessly, Moscow is letting
its opponents know “just how far it is willing to go to achieve its
strategic objectives”.