![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anti-satellite weapon</span> Kinetic energy device designed to destroy satellites in orbit](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8a/CASATCoOrbital01.jpg/320px-CASATCoOrbital01.jpg)
Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic or tactical purposes. Although no ASAT system has yet been utilized in warfare, a few countries have successfully shot down their own satellites to demonstrate their ASAT capabilities in a show of force. ASATs have also been used to remove decommissioned satellites.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space debris</span> Pollution around Earth by defunct artificial objects](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/00/Space_sustainability_urgency_in_earth_orbits_white.png/320px-Space_sustainability_urgency_in_earth_orbits_white.png)
Space debris are defunct human-made objects in space – principally in Earth orbit – which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecraft, mission-related debris, and particularly-numerous in-Earth orbit, fragmentation debris from the breakup of derelict rocket bodies and spacecraft. In addition to derelict human-made objects left in orbit, space debris includes fragments from disintegration, erosion, or collisions; solidified liquids expelled from spacecraft; unburned particles from solid rocket motors; and even paint flecks. Space debris represents a risk to spacecraft.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Reconnaissance Office</span> US intelligence agency in charge of satellite intelligence](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5f/NRO.svg/320px-NRO.svg.png)
The National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) is a member of the United States Intelligence Community and an agency of the United States Department of Defense which designs, builds, launches, and operates the reconnaissance satellites of the U.S. federal government. It provides satellite intelligence to several government agencies, particularly signals intelligence (SIGINT) to the NSA, imagery intelligence (IMINT) to the NGA, and measurement and signature intelligence (MASINT) to the DIA. The NRO announced in 2023 that it plans within the following decade to quadruple the number of satellites it operates and increase the number of signals and images it delivers by a factor of ten.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">KH-11 KENNEN</span> Type of American spy satellite](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/0d/KH-11_KENNEN_01.jpg/320px-KH-11_KENNEN_01.jpg)
The KH-11 KENNEN is a type of reconnaissance satellite first launched by the American National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in December 1976. Manufactured by Lockheed in Sunnyvale, California, the KH-11 was the first American spy satellite to use electro-optical digital imaging, and so offer real-time optical observations.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Space warfare</span> Combat that takes place in outer space](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/DASATsCoOrbitalSpaceLaser.jpg/320px-DASATsCoOrbitalSpaceLaser.jpg)
Space warfare is combat in which one or more belligerents are in outer space. The scope of space warfare includes ground-to-space warfare, such as attacking satellites from the Earth; space-to-space warfare, such as satellites attacking satellites; and space-to-ground warfare, such as satellites attacking Earth-based targets. Space warfare in fiction is thus sub-genre and theme of science fiction, where it is portrayed with a range of realism and plausibility. In the real world, international treaties are in place that attempt to regulate conflicts in space and limit the installation of space weapon systems, especially nuclear weapons.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kessler syndrome</span> Theoretical runaway satellite collision cascade that could render parts of Earth orbit unusable](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/a/a1/Debris-GEO1280.jpg/320px-Debris-GEO1280.jpg)
The Kessler syndrome, proposed by NASA scientists Donald J. Kessler and Burton G. Cour-Palais in 1978, is a scenario in which the density of objects in low Earth orbit (LEO) due to space pollution is numerous enough that collisions between objects could cause a cascade in which each collision generates space debris that increases the likelihood of further collisions. In 2009, Kessler wrote that modeling results had concluded that the debris environment was already unstable, "such that any attempt to achieve a growth-free small debris environment by eliminating sources of past debris will likely fail because fragments from future collisions will be generated faster than atmospheric drag will remove them". One implication is that the distribution of debris in orbit could render space activities and the use of satellites in specific orbital ranges difficult for many generations.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fengyun</span> Chinese weather satellites](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1b/20090829_Model_of_Fengyun-2_4002.JPG/320px-20090829_Model_of_Fengyun-2_4002.JPG)
Fēngyún are China's meteorological satellites. Launched since 1988 into polar Sun-synchronous and geosynchronous orbit, each three-axis stabilized Fengyun satellite is built by the Shanghai Academy of Spaceflight Technology (SAST) and operated by the China Meteorological Administration (CMA). To date, China has launched twenty-one Fengyun satellites in four classes. Fengyun 1 and Fengyun 3 satellites are in polar, Sun-synchronous orbit and Low Earth orbit while Fengyun 2 and 4 are geosynchronous orbit.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">United Launch Alliance</span> Joint venture of Lockheed Martin and Boeing](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Atlas_V_551_launch_with_Juno.jpg/320px-Atlas_V_551_launch_with_Juno.jpg)
United Launch Alliance, LLC (ULA) is an American launch service provider formed in December 2006 as a joint venture between Lockheed Martin Space and Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The company designs, assembles, sells and launches rockets, but the company subcontracts out the production of rocket engines and solid rocket boosters.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Future Imagery Architecture</span> American spy satellite program](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/83/FIA_Radar_1_satellite.jpg/320px-FIA_Radar_1_satellite.jpg)
Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) was a program awarded to Boeing to design a new generation of optical and radar imaging US reconnaissance satellites for the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). In 2005 NRO director Donald Kerr recommended the project's termination, and the optical component of the program was finally cancelled in September 2005 by Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte. FIA has been called by The New York Times "perhaps the most spectacular and expensive failure in the 50-year history of American spy satellite projects." Despite the optical component's cancellation, the radar component, known as Topaz, has continued, with four satellites in orbit as of February 2016.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">ASM-135 ASAT</span> Anti-satellite missile](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/15/An_air-to-air_left_side_view_of_an_F-15_Eagle_aircraft_releasing_an_anti-satellite_%28ASAT%29_missile_during_a_test.jpeg/320px-An_air-to-air_left_side_view_of_an_F-15_Eagle_aircraft_releasing_an_anti-satellite_%28ASAT%29_missile_during_a_test.jpeg)
The ASM-135 ASAT is an air-launched anti-satellite multistage missile that was developed by Ling-Temco-Vought's LTV Aerospace division. The ASM-135 was carried exclusively by United States Air Force (USAF) F-15 Eagle fighter aircraft.
On 11 January 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite missile test. A Chinese weather satellite—the FY-1C polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of 865 kilometres (537 mi), with a mass of 750 kilograms (1,650 lb)—was destroyed by a kinetic kill vehicle traveling with a speed of 8 km/s (18,000 mph) in the opposite direction. It was launched with a multistage solid-fuel missile from Xichang Satellite Launch Center or nearby.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solwind</span> Artificial satellite, US Department of Defense](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/P78-1-Solarwind_sat.gif/320px-P78-1-Solarwind_sat.gif)
P78-1 or Solwind was a United States satellite launched aboard an Atlas F rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California on February 24, 1979. The satellite's mission was extended by several weeks, so that it operated until it was destroyed in orbit on September 13, 1985, to test the ASM-135 ASAT anti-satellite missile.
Strictly speaking, a satellite collision is when two satellites collide while in orbit around a third, much larger body, such as a planet or moon. This definition is typically loosely extended to include collisions between sub-orbital or escape-velocity objects with an object in orbit. Prime examples are the anti-satellite weapon tests. There have been no observed collisions between natural satellites, but impact craters may show evidence of such events. Both intentional and unintentional collisions have occurred between man-made satellites around Earth since the 1980s. Anti-satellite weapon tests and failed rendezvous or docking operations can result in orbital space debris, which in turn may collide with other satellites.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Operation Burnt Frost</span> 2008 military operation to destroy a non-functioning U.S. satellite](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/SM-3_intercepting_NROL-21-20080220.jpg)
Operation Burnt Frost was a military operation to intercept and destroy non-functioning U.S. National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) satellite USA-193. The mission was described by the Missile Defense Agency as a "mission of safeguarding human life against the uncontrolled re-entry of a 5,000-pound satellite containing over 1,000 pounds of hazardous hydrazine propellant". The launch occurred on 21 February 2008 at approximately 10:26 p.m. EST from the cruiser USS Lake Erie, using a heavily modified Standard Missile-3 (SM-3) to shoot down the satellite. A few minutes after launch, the SM-3 intercepted its target and successfully completed its mission. The operation received scrutiny from other countries, mainly China and Russia.
China's anti-satellite (ASAT) program has been under development since 1964. The ASAT program has since been moved from Program 640 to Program 863, the General Armaments Department and the State Administration for Science, Technology and Industry for National Defense. Since its inception, the ASAT program has made progress on the development of three ASAT capable Systems: direct fire, directed-energy weapon, and microsatellites. Tests of these systems have either been directly acknowledged by the PRC, or reported on as ASAT capable. China is pursuing a broad and robust array of counterspace capabilities, which includes direct-ascent antisatellite missiles, co-orbital antisatellite systems, computer network operations, groundbased satellite jammers, and directed energy weapons.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">USA-215</span> American radar reconnaissance satellite](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/6/64/NROL-41_Mission_Patch.png/320px-NROL-41_Mission_Patch.png)
USA-215, also known as NRO Launch 41 or NROL-41, is an American reconnaissance satellite, operated by the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO). Launched in 2010, it has been identified as the first in a new series of imaging radar satellites, developed as part of the Future Imagery Architecture (FIA) programme, to replace the earlier Lacrosse spacecraft.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">USA-247</span> American reconnaissance satellite](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/44/Nrol-39_gemsat.png)
USA-247, also known as NRO Launch 39 or NROL-39, is an American reconnaissance satellite, operated by the National Reconnaissance Office and launched in December 2013. The USA-247 launch received a relatively high level of press coverage due to the mission's choice of logo, which depicts an octopus sitting astride the globe with the motto "Nothing Is Beyond Our Reach". The logo was extensively criticized in light of the surveillance disclosures in July 2013.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mission Shakti</span> First Indian anti-satellite weapon test](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/2/29/Launch_of_DRDO%27s_Ballistic_Missile_Defence_interceptor_missile_for_an_ASAT_test_on_27_March_2019.jpg/320px-Launch_of_DRDO%27s_Ballistic_Missile_Defence_interceptor_missile_for_an_ASAT_test_on_27_March_2019.jpg)
On 27 March 2019, India tested an anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) during an operation code named Mission Shakti. The target of the test was a satellite present in a low Earth orbit, which was hit with a kinetic kill vehicle.
![<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kosmos 1408</span> Soviet artificial satellite destroyed by an ASAT missile](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/0/07/Kosmos_1408_Numerica_post_impact_debris_cloud.png/320px-Kosmos_1408_Numerica_post_impact_debris_cloud.png)
Kosmos-1408 was an electronic signals intelligence (ELINT) satellite operated by the Soviet Union. It was launched into low Earth orbit on 16 September 1982 at 14:55 UTC, replacing Kosmos-1378. It operated for around two years before becoming inactive and left in orbit.