Destroying A Satellite
Photo Source: NASA and Clipart.com

We see it every day, satellites sailing over countries and taking photos of everything. Most countries don't like it, but they put up with it. There are even satellites from foreign countries flying over this country and taking their fill of photos at every pass. I have no way of knowing for sure, but from what I have read, it seems that a lot of top secret stuff has gone underground. I heard a claim that these things are only brought up at night to be tested. I am talking about secret aircraft and maybe even spacecraft. Along with this are missiles. It seems that we have adopted to the fact that we are under constant surveillance. Again I can't prove this fact, but it seems to be true. Not every country feels this way however. Some countries resent the fact that foreign countries are taking photos of all their installations. China is a good example.

I have mentioned this before, there is a secret war going on in near space. The Chinese do not like to see our satellites over their territory and it has been said that they have tried to shoot down a couple of them. Whether they have succeeded was in doubt until the recent missile test where a Chinese missile was said to have shot down an old Chinese satellite. To me this meant that they just succeeded in shooting down their first satellite and hadn't shot down any of ours, but wanted to give us a warning. I am not sure how serious a threat this was felt to be, because it is one thing to hit a satellite with a missile when you know exactly were it is going to be at a specific time in a low orbit and a whole other ball game to hit a satellite that can change position. We had a heck of a time hitting a missile even when we know where it was coming from and this is sort of in the same vein. Why are the Chinese so mad over our satellites when they have the same opportunity to put up theirs? The U.S. has admitted that there are major gaps in our intelligence when it comes to China, so this question can not be readily answered.

We do know something about the missile that knocked down the satellite and the position of the satellite. The satellite was in low Earth orbit and this made it a much easier target than a high Earth orbit satellite. The newer satellites are much smaller and thus present much harder targets to hit. Satellites that can change position become even harder targets. The missile was actually a commercial rocket known as the KT-1. It was said not to contain a warhead and operated on kinetic energy. That means that it relied on just the force of the collision to knock down the satellite. It was launched from Xichang space center, which is in Sichuan province. It had more than one stage. A warning to a U.S. satellite was made in the form of lighting it with a laser that cast a beam up from the ground. The satellite was not attacked but the warning was clear, but wait, some authorities say it was an attack, that it was an attempt to blind our satellite.

Here is the strange part of the whole thing. There really hasn't been any evidence shown that there was a missile launch although the U.S. concedes this point. The Chinese satellite that was shot down was named Fengyun -1C and it received many more observations from us than usual, just before being blown out of orbit. NORAD, which is the North American Aerospace Defense Command, usually looks at each satellite once or twice a day and issues reports on them. On January 10, 2007 it issued 3 reports on this satellite and on January 11, 2007 there were 5 reports, then nothing. No reports have been made on the satellite since it's reported destruction.

The Chinese have been working on a ground based laser that will be powerful enough to be a satellite destroyer. We do not know how many times it has been fired at U.S. satellites or if it ever succeeded in putting any of them out of commission. While many news services are saying that the Pentagon states that China has the ability to blind U.S. satellites, that is not what a recent Pentagon report states. It says that at least one of the satellite attack systems appears to be a ground based laser designed to damage or blind imaging satellites. This is a far cry from admitting that it can blind one of our satellites

China, if it can knock down satellites and we still can't be sure of this, is not alone with this ability. A while back the U.S. said it perfected a system that is much more efficient than the Chinese system. It is said to use rockets launched from a high flying plane. Could this plane be the top secret Aurora? If so, there are rumors that this plane can actually fly into space and is capable of incredible speeds. I have heard that the plane can go into orbit, making it an easy task to destroy a satellite. I am sure that we also have lasers. One huge laser that we have been testing fills an entire cargo plane and is airborne. It was developed to shoot down incoming missiles, but hasn't had much success in that area yet. We also are testing a ground based laser at the Starfire Optical Range. We claim that we are using it to only track satellites Maybe both countries are just tracking satellites or maybe both countries are either tracking or trying to blind satellites. In this world of secrets it is very hard to try and figure out what is really going on.

 

There are several ways that satellites can be protected from destruction. A spy satellite can be protected from a laser with a shutter. It could be closed as soon as the beam is detected. Here is the problem for the laser. These spy satellites use several different wavelengths when spying. The laser would have to be able to blind each one, not just the visible light. Moving a satellite around would make it much harder to hit with a rocket and it is doubtful that with today's technology it could even be done. Some people say that you can not put enough fuel on board a satellite to move it, just think about the time that a small boy moved a telephone satellite by hacking into it with his computer and it was days before it was found. Satellites can also be hardened to protect from Electromagnetic pulses or EMPs. These pulses can knock out any electrical systems and an EMP bomb is easily constructed. Nuclear weapons also give off emps.

In September,2006, an article appeared on the 22nd, in a major newspaper, that stated that the U.S. has deployed a unit that can jam enemy satellites. A general was quoted as saying "You can't go to war and win without space."

Being Earth bound, we really don't know what is going on up there (in orbit). For all we know there could be nukes circling over our heads already. It is quite possible that weapons exist in space and none of the countries are talking about it. On the other hand maybe, just maybe, space is still being respected. If that is the case, it is time for everyone to agree, in writing, that they will not violate it. That includes us. This is not what President Bush wants as he has refused to join in a space treaty in the past. Possibly he believes that we have a lead and because of that there is no reason to give up any advantage by signing a space treaty. Be this as it may, it just might be in the best interests of the human race to create a non weapons zone above our heads and protect our satellites.