Chinese test Anti-Satellite weapon

Thought folks might want to know about this one.

http://www.spaceref.com/news/viewnews.html?id=1188

Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon
By Craig Covault, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Cape Canaveral
Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Courtesy of Aviation Week & Space Technology and Aviationnow.com

U. S. intelligence agencies believe China performed a successful
anti-satellite (asat) weapons test at more than 500 mi. altitude Jan.
11 destroying an aging Chinese weather satellite target with a kinetic
kill vehicle launched on board a ballistic missile.

The Central Intelligence Agency, the National Security Agency, the
Defense Intelligence Agency, NASA and other government organizations
have a full court press underway to obtain data on the alleged test,
Aviation Week & Space Technology reports on its web site
Aviationnow.com.

If the test is verified it will signify a major new Chinese military
capability.

Neither the Office of the U. S. Secretary of Defense nor Air Force
Space Command would comment on the attack, which followed by several
months the alleged illumination of a U. S. military spacecraft by a
Chinese ground based laser.

China's growing military space capability is one major reason the Bush
Administration last year formed the nation's first new National Space
Policy in ten years, Aviation Week will report in its Jan. 22 issue.

"The policy is designed to ensure that our space capabilities are
protected in a time of increasing challenges and threats," says Robert
G. Joseph, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security
at the U. S. State Dept.

"This is imperative because space capabilities are vital to our
national security and to our economic well being," Joseph said in an
address on the new space policy at the National Press Club in
Washington D. C.

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 system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center.

The attack is believed to have occurred as the weather satellite flew
at 530 mi. altitude 4 deg. west of Xichang located in Sichuan province.
Xichang is a major Chinese space launch center.

Although intelligence agencies must complete confirmation of the test,
the attack is believed to have occurred at about 5:28 p.m. EST Jan.
11. U. S. intelligence agencies had been expecting some sort of test
that day, sources said.

U. S. Air Force Defense Support Program missile warning satellites in
geosynchronous orbit would have detected the Xichang launch of the asat
kill vehicle and U. S. Air Force Space Command monitored the FY-1C
orbit both before and after the exercise.

The test, if it occurred as envisioned by intelligence source, could
also have left considerable space debris in an orbit used by many
different satellites.

USAF radar reports on the Chinese FY-1C spacecraft have been posted
once or twice daily for years, but those reports jumped to about 4
times per day just before the alleged test.

The USAF radar reports then ceased Jan. 11, but then appeared for a
day showing "signs of orbital distress". The reports were then halted
again. The Air Force radars may well be busy cataloging many pieces of
debris, sources said.

Although more of a "policy weapon" at this time, the test shows that
the Chinese military can threaten the imaging reconnaissance satellites
operated by the U. S., Japan, Russia, Israel and Europe.

The Republic of China also operates a small imaging spacecraft that can
photograph objects as small as about 10 ft. in size, a capability good
enough to count cruise missiles pointed at Taiwan from the Chinese
mainland. The Taiwanese in the past have also leased capability on an
Israeli reconnaissance satellite