| Publication |
2010.
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| Summary/Abstract |
The growing number of actors pursuing sophisticated outer space programs gives rise to one of the more novel challenges of the global commons. Once the privileged domain of the United States and the Soviet Union, space now accommodates a larger set of countries seeking to enhance their defense capabilities. In January 2007, perhaps most notably, China tested an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile, destroying Fengyun-1C, an old Chinese weather satellite. The weapon was a kinetic-energy ASAT, which homed in on its target and shattered it through high-velocity collision at an altitude of 864 km.1 The impact created thousands of debris fragments concentrated in orbits between 800 and 1,000 km,2 approximately doubling the risk of potentially catastrophic collision for satellites in the crowded 800-900 km range.3 Satellites at these altitudes include commercial communications satellites, a U.S. photoreconnaissance satellite, a Chinese earth science satellite, and a Russian electronic intelligence satellite.4 Most of the Fengyun-1C debris will stay in orbit for several decades; some is expected to remain in space for centuries.
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