正文
里面跟贴有中国人? 还是住在中国的巴基斯坦人?
Chinese Test Missile Obliterates Satellite Options
---------------------------
Today, 04:51 PM Post #1
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 42
Joined: 2-July 06
Member No.: 9,823
Location: USA
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/18/china.missile/index.html
Chinese test missile obliterates satellite
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.
According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The missile carried a "kill vehicle" and destroyed the satellite by ramming it.
The test took place on January 11.
Aviation Week and Space Technology first reported the test: "Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat (anti-satellite) system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center."
A U.S. official, who would not agree to be identified, said the event was the first successful test of the missile after three failures.
The official said that U.S. "space tracking sensors" confirmed that the satellite is no longer in orbit and that the collision produced "hundreds of pieces of debris," that also are being tracked.
The United States logged a formal diplomatic protest.
"We are aware of it and we are concerned, and we made it known," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
Several U.S. allies, including Canada and Australia, also have registered protests.
Under a space policy authorized by President Bush in August, the United States asserts a right to "freedom of action in space" and says it will "deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so."
The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
Low Earth-orbit satellites have become indispensable for U.S. military communications, GPS navigation for smart bombs and troops, and for real-time surveillance. The Chinese test highlights the satellites' vulnerability.
"If we, for instance, got into a conflict over Taiwan, one of the first things they'd probably do would be to shoot down all of our lower Earth-orbit spy satellites, putting out our eyes," said John Pike of globalsecurity.org, a Web site that compiles information on worldwide security issues.
"The thing that is surprising and disturbing is that [the Chinese] have chosen this moment to demonstrate a military capability that can only be aimed at the United States," he said.
-----------------------------------
Today, 05:09 PM Post #2
PakSniper786 COLONEL
Group: Full Members
Posts: 855
Joined: 7-November 06
Member No.: 11,447
Location: Pakistan
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/CLAPING.GIF) (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/ChinaFlag.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/CLAPING.GIF)
--------------------
Today, 05:27 PM Post #3
pirateofthecarribean BRIGADIER
Group: Senior Members
Posts: 1,181
Joined: 5-July 06
Member No.: 9,861
Location: New York
didnt america test such tactics in 1970s in the ASAT program?
--------------------
Today, 06:33 PM Post #4
SADFACE CADET
Group: Full Members
Posts: 68
Joined: 16-April 03
Member No.: 1,136
China tested with its own old satellite, it is none of US, Australia and Canada's business.
If US thinks that China will destroy its satellites over a Taiwan conflict with China, how about try not to interfere with Taiwan affairs? Taiwan is a part of China.
China's intention with the latest series of weapon reveals and this test could not be clearer: dont play God. we have the means to deal with you. Think, and think again before you get involved.
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/BANANA.GIF)
-------------------------
Today, 06:49 PM Post #5
hesidu CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 63
Joined: 18-September 06
Member No.: 10,979
Location: xi'an,china
QUOTE(SADFACE @ Jan 18 2007, 06:33 PM)
China tested with its own old satellite, it is none of US, Australia and Canada's business.
If US thinks that China will destroy its satellites over a Taiwan conflict with China, how about try not to interfere with Taiwan affairs? Taiwan is a part of China.
China's intention with the latest series of weapon reveals and this test could not be clearer: dont play God. we have the means to deal with you. Think, and think again before you get involved.
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/BANANA.GIF)
You are wrong. What China want is to warn Washington D.C. to watch over its little fellow in Taipei and make sure they won't cross the line.
--------------------------
Today, 06:53 PM Post #6
vipermkk CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 19
Joined: Yesterday, 03:25 PM
Member No.: 11,988
Location: Guangzhou,PRC
Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999, it really wasn't a old seatellite
--------------------------------
Today, 07:05 PM Post #7
hesidu CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 63
Joined: 18-September 06
Member No.: 10,979
QUOTE(vipermkk @ Jan 18 2007, 06:53 PM)
Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999, it really wasn't a old seatellite
Lifetime of FY-1C was 5 years. So it's out of date now. And China already had FY-1D to take its place.
-----------------------------
Today, 07:23 PM Post #8
baersworth LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 215
Joined: 7-September 03
Member No.: 2,615
The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
==============================================
The US really want to play GOD. Now the Chinese just tell them go to hell without saying a single word. That satellite was 800 km up in the sky, so that also tell the US their stellites in much lower orbits have nowhere to hide. (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/LOLANI.GIF)
----------------------------------------
Today, 09:47 PM Post #9
PakSniper786 COLONEL
Group: Full Members
Posts: 855
Joined: 7-November 06
Member No.: 11,447
Location: Pakistan
QUOTE(baersworth @ Jan 18 2007, 07:23 PM)
The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
====================================================================
The US can shove it., we don't have to follow what they say, they also have weapons to take out satelites, and now another nation has them it's all fair in war now (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/BVICTORY.GIF)
--------------------
Today, 09:59 PM Post #10
seawolf LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 110
Joined: 20-September 06
Member No.: 11,007
Location: dalian
It is reported in China by citation but not confirmed by official channels. The US carried such test in 1985 by launching a missle from F15 jet fighter and knocked out a satellite 500km over the earth.
Why should the US get into conflict over Taiwan? It is purely Chinese home business. The US is playing games of ambiguity to intimidate China, if the news is true, the US got their reply from China that stay away from involvedment in this Taiwan business.
OK?
-----------------------------
Today, 10:37 PM Post #11
Naveed CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 42
Joined: 2-July 06
Member No.: 9,823
Location: USA
QUOTE(seawolf @ Jan 18 2007, 09:59 PM)
It is reported in China by citation but not confirmed by official channels. The US carried such test in 1985 by launching a missle from F15 jet fighter and knocked out a satellite 500km over the earth.
Bro do you have link for this, i am intrested to read in detail.
Thanks
------------------------------------------
Today, 10:43 PM Post #12
pirateofthecarribean BRIGADIER
Group: Senior Members
Posts: 1,181
Joined: 5-July 06
Member No.: 9,861
Location: New York
QUOTE(Naveed @ Jan 18 2007, 11:37 PM)
Bro do you have link for this, i am intrested to read in detail.
Thanks
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-135.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon
--------------------
Today, 10:55 PM Post #13
Naveed CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 42
Joined: 2-July 06
Member No.: 9,823
Location: USA
QUOTE(pirateofthecarribean @ Jan 18 2007, 10:43 PM)
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-135.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon
Thanks bro
--------------------------
Today, 11:11 PM Post #14
KunLun COLONEL
Group: Senior Members
Posts: 1,098
Joined: 21-October 02
Member No.: 169
this test took me by surprise,
I would have expected China to use Laser to blow the Satelite not a missile.
I heard China Laser weapon development is very advance, almost on par with USA's
Anyone can tell me more on this?
----------------------------------------
Today, 11:27 PM Post #15
marchpole LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 159
Joined: 22-December 04
Member No.: 5,568
The US should keep a tight rein on its dirty space activities before complaining about what others do in the space.
China Tests Anti-Satellite Weapon, Unnerving U.S.
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Reprints Share
DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: January 18, 2007
China successfully carried out its first test of an anti-satellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said Thursday.
Only two nations — Russia and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in anti-satellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid 1980s.
Arms control experts called the test, in which a Chinese missile destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow either an anti-satellite arms race or, alternatively, a diplomatic push by China to force the Bush administration into negotiations on a weapons ban.
“This is the first real escalation in the weaponization of space that we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “It ends a long period of restraint.”
White House officials said the United States and other nations, which they did not name, had “expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese.” Despite its protest, the Bush administration has long resisted a global treaty banning such tests because it says it needs freedom of action in space.
At a time when China is modernizing its nuclear weapons, expanding the reach of its navy and sending astronauts into orbit for the first time, the test appears to mark a new sphere of technical and military competition. American officials complained today that China made no public or private announcements about its test, despite repeated requests by American officials for more openness about their actions.
The weather satellite hit by the missile circled the globe at an altitude of roughly 500 miles. In theory, the test means that China can now hit American spy satellites, which orbit closer to Earth than that. Experts said remnants of the destroyed satellite could threaten to damage or destroy other satellites for years or even decades to come.
In late August, President Bush authorized a new national space policy that ignored calls for a global prohibition on such tests and asserted the need for American “freedom of action in space.”
“It could be a shot across the bow,” said Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, a private group in Washington that tracks military programs. “For several years, the Russians and Chinese have been trying to push a treaty to ban space weapons. The concept of exhibiting a hard-power capability to bring somebody to the negotiating table is a classic cold war technique.”
Gary Samore, the director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a proliferation expert, said in an interview: “I think it makes perfect sense for the Chinese to do this both for deterrence and to hedge their bets. It puts pressure on the U.S. to negotiate agreements not to weaponize space.”
Ms. Hitchens and other critics have accused the Bush administration of conducting secret research on advanced anti-satellite weapons using lasers, which are considered a far speedier and more powerful way of destroying satellites than the cruder weapons of two decades ago.
The White House statement, issued by the National Security Council, said China’s “development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area.”
An administration official who had reviewed the intelligence about China’s test said the Chinese missile launch was detected by the United States in the early evening of Jan. 11, which would have been early morning on Jan. 12 in China. American satellites tracked the launch of the medium-range ballistic missile, and later space radars saw the debris and noted that the old weather satellite had vanished.
The anti-satellite test was first reported late Wednesday on the Web site of Aviation Week and Space Technology, an industry magazine. It said intelligence agencies had yet to “complete confirmation of the test.”
The Chinese test, the magazine said, appeared to employ a ground-based interceptor that used the sheer force of impact rather than an exploding warhead to shatter the satellite into a cloud of debris.
Dr. McDowell of Harvard, who twice monthly publishes "Jonathan’s Space Report," an e-mail newsletter, said the satellite is known as Feng Yun, or “wind and cloud.” Launched in 1999, it was the third in a series. He said the satellite was a cube measuring 4.6 feet on a side, and that its solar panels extended about 28 feet. He added that it was due for retirement sometime soon but still appeared to be electronically alive — making it an ideal target.
“If it stops working,” he said, “you know you have a successful hit.”
David C. Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group in Cambridge, Mass., said he calculated that the Chinese satellite shattered into 800 fragments that were 4 inches wide or larger, and millions of smaller pieces.
Jianhua Li, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said he had heard about the anti-satellite report but had no statement or information.
The Soviet Union conducted roughly a dozen anti-satellite tests between 1968 and 1982, Dr. McDowell said, adding that the Reagan administration carried out its experiments in 1985 and 1986.
The Bush administration has conducted laser research that critics say could produce a powerful ground-based laser weapon that would use beams of concentrated light to destroy enemy satellites in orbit.
The largely secret project, parts of which were made public through Air Force budget documents ted to Congress last year, appears to be part of a wide-ranging effort by the Bush administration to develop space weapons, both defensive and offensive. No treaty or law forbids such work.
The administration’s laser research is far more ambitious than a previous effort by the Clinton administration nearly a decade ago to develop an anti-satellite laser. It would take advantage of an optical technique that uses sensors, computers and flexible mirrors to counteract the atmospheric turbulence that seems to make stars twinkle. The weapon would essentially reverse that process, shooting focused beams of light upward with great clarity and force.
Michael Krepon, cofounder of the Washington-based Henry L. Stimson Center, a private group that studies national security, called the Chinese test very un-Chinese.
“There’s nothing subtle about this,” he said. “They’ve created a huge debris cloud that will last a quarter century or more. It’s at a higher elevation than the test we did in 1985, and for that one the last trackable debris took 17 years to clear out.”
Mr. Krepon added that the administration has long argued that the world needs no space-weapons treaty because no such arms exist and because the last tests were two decades ago. “It seems,” he said, “that argument is no longer operative.”
--------------------------------
Today, 11:34 PM Post #16
tkhan LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 237
Joined: 8-September 03
Member No.: 2,651
China has every right to test such weapons. Furthermore, the US isn't really worried. They had this technology fourty years ago. They just want total domination. Which is what every country, wrongly, wants.
--------------------------
Today, 11:40 PM Post #17
cpbrother CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Today, 11:04 PM
Member No.: 12,046
Location: China
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/PakistanFlag.gif) It is a great news for both Pakistan and China, American will realise that they are not the only one having such a technology.
--------------------------
Today, 11:51 PM Post #18
Archangelesk99 CAPTAIN
Group: Full Members
Posts: 599
Joined: 7-November 02
Member No.: 328
QUOTE
China has every right to test such weapons. Furthermore, the US isn't really worried. They had this technology fourty years ago. They just want total domination. Which is what every country, wrongly, wants.
US actually tested similar technology 20 years ago. USSR tested destroying satellites in 1970s but I'm not sure if it was same method. As for world domination I'm not sure, but no one complains more than UK/USA. I guarantee it (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/laugh.gif)
--------------------------
Today, 11:52 PM Post #19
PakSniper786 COLONEL
Group: Full Members
Posts: 855
Joined: 7-November 06
Member No.: 11,447
Location: Pakistan
QUOTE
In late August, President Bush authorized a new national space policy that ignored calls for a global prohibition on such tests and asserted the need for American “freedom of action in space.”
Such double, standard can't we just say China is using it's freedom. (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/LOLANI.GIF)
America a bastard child nation born from mother britian,. goaning and groaing.
Chinese Test Missile Obliterates Satellite Options
---------------------------
Today, 04:51 PM Post #1
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 42
Joined: 2-July 06
Member No.: 9,823
Location: USA
http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/space/01/18/china.missile/index.html
Chinese test missile obliterates satellite
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- China last week successfully used a missile to destroy an orbiting satellite, U.S. government officials told CNN on Thursday, in a test that could undermine relations with the West and pose a threat to satellites important to the U.S. military.
According to a spokesman for the National Security Council, the ground-based, medium-range ballistic missile knocked an old Chinese weather satellite from its orbit about 537 miles above Earth. The missile carried a "kill vehicle" and destroyed the satellite by ramming it.
The test took place on January 11.
Aviation Week and Space Technology first reported the test: "Details emerging from space sources indicate that the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was attacked by an asat (anti-satellite) system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center."
A U.S. official, who would not agree to be identified, said the event was the first successful test of the missile after three failures.
The official said that U.S. "space tracking sensors" confirmed that the satellite is no longer in orbit and that the collision produced "hundreds of pieces of debris," that also are being tracked.
The United States logged a formal diplomatic protest.
"We are aware of it and we are concerned, and we made it known," said White House spokesman Tony Snow.
Several U.S. allies, including Canada and Australia, also have registered protests.
Under a space policy authorized by President Bush in August, the United States asserts a right to "freedom of action in space" and says it will "deter others from either impeding those rights or developing capabilities intended to do so."
The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
Low Earth-orbit satellites have become indispensable for U.S. military communications, GPS navigation for smart bombs and troops, and for real-time surveillance. The Chinese test highlights the satellites' vulnerability.
"If we, for instance, got into a conflict over Taiwan, one of the first things they'd probably do would be to shoot down all of our lower Earth-orbit spy satellites, putting out our eyes," said John Pike of globalsecurity.org, a Web site that compiles information on worldwide security issues.
"The thing that is surprising and disturbing is that [the Chinese] have chosen this moment to demonstrate a military capability that can only be aimed at the United States," he said.
-----------------------------------
Today, 05:09 PM Post #2
PakSniper786 COLONEL
Group: Full Members
Posts: 855
Joined: 7-November 06
Member No.: 11,447
Location: Pakistan
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/CLAPING.GIF) (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/ChinaFlag.gif) (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/CLAPING.GIF)
--------------------
Today, 05:27 PM Post #3
pirateofthecarribean BRIGADIER
Group: Senior Members
Posts: 1,181
Joined: 5-July 06
Member No.: 9,861
Location: New York
didnt america test such tactics in 1970s in the ASAT program?
--------------------
Today, 06:33 PM Post #4
SADFACE CADET
Group: Full Members
Posts: 68
Joined: 16-April 03
Member No.: 1,136
China tested with its own old satellite, it is none of US, Australia and Canada's business.
If US thinks that China will destroy its satellites over a Taiwan conflict with China, how about try not to interfere with Taiwan affairs? Taiwan is a part of China.
China's intention with the latest series of weapon reveals and this test could not be clearer: dont play God. we have the means to deal with you. Think, and think again before you get involved.
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/BANANA.GIF)
-------------------------
Today, 06:49 PM Post #5
hesidu CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 63
Joined: 18-September 06
Member No.: 10,979
Location: xi'an,china
QUOTE(SADFACE @ Jan 18 2007, 06:33 PM)
China tested with its own old satellite, it is none of US, Australia and Canada's business.
If US thinks that China will destroy its satellites over a Taiwan conflict with China, how about try not to interfere with Taiwan affairs? Taiwan is a part of China.
China's intention with the latest series of weapon reveals and this test could not be clearer: dont play God. we have the means to deal with you. Think, and think again before you get involved.
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/BANANA.GIF)
You are wrong. What China want is to warn Washington D.C. to watch over its little fellow in Taipei and make sure they won't cross the line.
--------------------------
Today, 06:53 PM Post #6
vipermkk CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 19
Joined: Yesterday, 03:25 PM
Member No.: 11,988
Location: Guangzhou,PRC
Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999, it really wasn't a old seatellite
--------------------------------
Today, 07:05 PM Post #7
hesidu CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 63
Joined: 18-September 06
Member No.: 10,979
QUOTE(vipermkk @ Jan 18 2007, 06:53 PM)
Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999, it really wasn't a old seatellite
Lifetime of FY-1C was 5 years. So it's out of date now. And China already had FY-1D to take its place.
-----------------------------
Today, 07:23 PM Post #8
baersworth LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 215
Joined: 7-September 03
Member No.: 2,615
The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
==============================================
The US really want to play GOD. Now the Chinese just tell them go to hell without saying a single word. That satellite was 800 km up in the sky, so that also tell the US their stellites in much lower orbits have nowhere to hide. (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/LOLANI.GIF)
----------------------------------------
Today, 09:47 PM Post #9
PakSniper786 COLONEL
Group: Full Members
Posts: 855
Joined: 7-November 06
Member No.: 11,447
Location: Pakistan
QUOTE(baersworth @ Jan 18 2007, 07:23 PM)
The policy includes the right to "deny, if necessary, adversaries the use of space capabilities hostile to U.S. national interests."
====================================================================
The US can shove it., we don't have to follow what they say, they also have weapons to take out satelites, and now another nation has them it's all fair in war now (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/BVICTORY.GIF)
--------------------
Today, 09:59 PM Post #10
seawolf LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 110
Joined: 20-September 06
Member No.: 11,007
Location: dalian
It is reported in China by citation but not confirmed by official channels. The US carried such test in 1985 by launching a missle from F15 jet fighter and knocked out a satellite 500km over the earth.
Why should the US get into conflict over Taiwan? It is purely Chinese home business. The US is playing games of ambiguity to intimidate China, if the news is true, the US got their reply from China that stay away from involvedment in this Taiwan business.
OK?
-----------------------------
Today, 10:37 PM Post #11
Naveed CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 42
Joined: 2-July 06
Member No.: 9,823
Location: USA
QUOTE(seawolf @ Jan 18 2007, 09:59 PM)
It is reported in China by citation but not confirmed by official channels. The US carried such test in 1985 by launching a missle from F15 jet fighter and knocked out a satellite 500km over the earth.
Bro do you have link for this, i am intrested to read in detail.
Thanks
------------------------------------------
Today, 10:43 PM Post #12
pirateofthecarribean BRIGADIER
Group: Senior Members
Posts: 1,181
Joined: 5-July 06
Member No.: 9,861
Location: New York
QUOTE(Naveed @ Jan 18 2007, 11:37 PM)
Bro do you have link for this, i am intrested to read in detail.
Thanks
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-135.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon
--------------------
Today, 10:55 PM Post #13
Naveed CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 42
Joined: 2-July 06
Member No.: 9,823
Location: USA
QUOTE(pirateofthecarribean @ Jan 18 2007, 10:43 PM)
http://www.designation-systems.net/dusrm/m-135.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-satellite_weapon
Thanks bro
--------------------------
Today, 11:11 PM Post #14
KunLun COLONEL
Group: Senior Members
Posts: 1,098
Joined: 21-October 02
Member No.: 169
this test took me by surprise,
I would have expected China to use Laser to blow the Satelite not a missile.
I heard China Laser weapon development is very advance, almost on par with USA's
Anyone can tell me more on this?
----------------------------------------
Today, 11:27 PM Post #15
marchpole LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 159
Joined: 22-December 04
Member No.: 5,568
The US should keep a tight rein on its dirty space activities before complaining about what others do in the space.
China Tests Anti-Satellite Weapon, Unnerving U.S.
Sign In to E-Mail or Save This Print Reprints Share
DiggFacebookNewsvinePermalink
By WILLIAM J. BROAD and DAVID E. SANGER
Published: January 18, 2007
China successfully carried out its first test of an anti-satellite weapon last week, signaling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from Washington and other capitals, the Bush administration said Thursday.
Only two nations — Russia and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in anti-satellite tests, most recently the United States in the mid 1980s.
Arms control experts called the test, in which a Chinese missile destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow either an anti-satellite arms race or, alternatively, a diplomatic push by China to force the Bush administration into negotiations on a weapons ban.
“This is the first real escalation in the weaponization of space that we’ve seen in 20 years,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “It ends a long period of restraint.”
White House officials said the United States and other nations, which they did not name, had “expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese.” Despite its protest, the Bush administration has long resisted a global treaty banning such tests because it says it needs freedom of action in space.
At a time when China is modernizing its nuclear weapons, expanding the reach of its navy and sending astronauts into orbit for the first time, the test appears to mark a new sphere of technical and military competition. American officials complained today that China made no public or private announcements about its test, despite repeated requests by American officials for more openness about their actions.
The weather satellite hit by the missile circled the globe at an altitude of roughly 500 miles. In theory, the test means that China can now hit American spy satellites, which orbit closer to Earth than that. Experts said remnants of the destroyed satellite could threaten to damage or destroy other satellites for years or even decades to come.
In late August, President Bush authorized a new national space policy that ignored calls for a global prohibition on such tests and asserted the need for American “freedom of action in space.”
“It could be a shot across the bow,” said Theresa Hitchens, director of the Center for Defense Information, a private group in Washington that tracks military programs. “For several years, the Russians and Chinese have been trying to push a treaty to ban space weapons. The concept of exhibiting a hard-power capability to bring somebody to the negotiating table is a classic cold war technique.”
Gary Samore, the director of studies at the Council on Foreign Relations and a proliferation expert, said in an interview: “I think it makes perfect sense for the Chinese to do this both for deterrence and to hedge their bets. It puts pressure on the U.S. to negotiate agreements not to weaponize space.”
Ms. Hitchens and other critics have accused the Bush administration of conducting secret research on advanced anti-satellite weapons using lasers, which are considered a far speedier and more powerful way of destroying satellites than the cruder weapons of two decades ago.
The White House statement, issued by the National Security Council, said China’s “development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area.”
An administration official who had reviewed the intelligence about China’s test said the Chinese missile launch was detected by the United States in the early evening of Jan. 11, which would have been early morning on Jan. 12 in China. American satellites tracked the launch of the medium-range ballistic missile, and later space radars saw the debris and noted that the old weather satellite had vanished.
The anti-satellite test was first reported late Wednesday on the Web site of Aviation Week and Space Technology, an industry magazine. It said intelligence agencies had yet to “complete confirmation of the test.”
The Chinese test, the magazine said, appeared to employ a ground-based interceptor that used the sheer force of impact rather than an exploding warhead to shatter the satellite into a cloud of debris.
Dr. McDowell of Harvard, who twice monthly publishes "Jonathan’s Space Report," an e-mail newsletter, said the satellite is known as Feng Yun, or “wind and cloud.” Launched in 1999, it was the third in a series. He said the satellite was a cube measuring 4.6 feet on a side, and that its solar panels extended about 28 feet. He added that it was due for retirement sometime soon but still appeared to be electronically alive — making it an ideal target.
“If it stops working,” he said, “you know you have a successful hit.”
David C. Wright, a senior scientist at the Union of Concerned Scientists, a private group in Cambridge, Mass., said he calculated that the Chinese satellite shattered into 800 fragments that were 4 inches wide or larger, and millions of smaller pieces.
Jianhua Li, a spokesman at the Chinese Embassy in Washington, said he had heard about the anti-satellite report but had no statement or information.
The Soviet Union conducted roughly a dozen anti-satellite tests between 1968 and 1982, Dr. McDowell said, adding that the Reagan administration carried out its experiments in 1985 and 1986.
The Bush administration has conducted laser research that critics say could produce a powerful ground-based laser weapon that would use beams of concentrated light to destroy enemy satellites in orbit.
The largely secret project, parts of which were made public through Air Force budget documents ted to Congress last year, appears to be part of a wide-ranging effort by the Bush administration to develop space weapons, both defensive and offensive. No treaty or law forbids such work.
The administration’s laser research is far more ambitious than a previous effort by the Clinton administration nearly a decade ago to develop an anti-satellite laser. It would take advantage of an optical technique that uses sensors, computers and flexible mirrors to counteract the atmospheric turbulence that seems to make stars twinkle. The weapon would essentially reverse that process, shooting focused beams of light upward with great clarity and force.
Michael Krepon, cofounder of the Washington-based Henry L. Stimson Center, a private group that studies national security, called the Chinese test very un-Chinese.
“There’s nothing subtle about this,” he said. “They’ve created a huge debris cloud that will last a quarter century or more. It’s at a higher elevation than the test we did in 1985, and for that one the last trackable debris took 17 years to clear out.”
Mr. Krepon added that the administration has long argued that the world needs no space-weapons treaty because no such arms exist and because the last tests were two decades ago. “It seems,” he said, “that argument is no longer operative.”
--------------------------------
Today, 11:34 PM Post #16
tkhan LIEUTENANT
Group: Full Members
Posts: 237
Joined: 8-September 03
Member No.: 2,651
China has every right to test such weapons. Furthermore, the US isn't really worried. They had this technology fourty years ago. They just want total domination. Which is what every country, wrongly, wants.
--------------------------
Today, 11:40 PM Post #17
cpbrother CADET
Group: Jr. Members
Posts: 1
Joined: Today, 11:04 PM
Member No.: 12,046
Location: China
(IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/PakistanFlag.gif) It is a great news for both Pakistan and China, American will realise that they are not the only one having such a technology.
--------------------------
Today, 11:51 PM Post #18
Archangelesk99 CAPTAIN
Group: Full Members
Posts: 599
Joined: 7-November 02
Member No.: 328
QUOTE
China has every right to test such weapons. Furthermore, the US isn't really worried. They had this technology fourty years ago. They just want total domination. Which is what every country, wrongly, wants.
US actually tested similar technology 20 years ago. USSR tested destroying satellites in 1970s but I'm not sure if it was same method. As for world domination I'm not sure, but no one complains more than UK/USA. I guarantee it (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/laugh.gif)
--------------------------
Today, 11:52 PM Post #19
PakSniper786 COLONEL
Group: Full Members
Posts: 855
Joined: 7-November 06
Member No.: 11,447
Location: Pakistan
QUOTE
In late August, President Bush authorized a new national space policy that ignored calls for a global prohibition on such tests and asserted the need for American “freedom of action in space.”
Such double, standard can't we just say China is using it's freedom. (IMG:style_emoticons/PDFEmotionIconsv10/LOLANI.GIF)
America a bastard child nation born from mother britian,. goaning and groaing.
评论
目前还没有任何评论
登录后才可评论.
