Focused on the Threat: Kinetic Energy Weapons (Part 4 of 6)

  • Published
  • By Lisa Sodders and Brad Smith, SSC Public Affairs
El Segundo, CA --  In today’s congested and contested space domain, space threats are no longer science fiction:  they are science fact. As we approach the fifth anniversary of the U.S. Space Force, we examine the top threats to U.S. interests in, from and to space. Part four of this six-part series focuses on kinetic energy weapons. 

A kinetic energy weapon is designed to destroy space assets, either by an intentional collision or by using warheads to destroy them. Along with the possibility of a direct attack on a target spacecraft, kinetic weapons pose an additional, second order threat because fragments of the wrecked satellite and the weapon become space debris and pose a threat to other space vehicles. 

“The most visual representation that we can remember is the movie ‘Gravity’,” said U.S. Space Force Maj. Neal Carter, deputy director of intelligence at Space Systems Command (SSC). In that film, Russians destroy one of their defunct satellites, and the resulting debris field destroys a space shuttle, damages the International Space Station, and takes out several communications satellites. 

Both Russia and China have demonstrated the ability to use direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons. China tested an ASAT weapon in January 2007, destroying a defunct Chinese weather satellite and creating a debris field of more than 3,000 pieces of space debris.  

“A 2023 report from the National Space Intelligence Center was looking at how many pieces of debris were still in orbit from the 2007 destruction that China executed, and the estimate was there were still 2,700 pieces still in orbit, basically a decade and a half later,” said Dr. Scott C. Theiring, a director within Project West Wing at The Aerospace Corporation. “So those things are still flying around in space and adding to that environmental threat. And they’re not clearing out of that minutely thin atmosphere.” 

Objects in low earth orbit, or LEO, could be travelling as fast as 17,000 mph, so depending on the size of the object and what it hits, space debris can be extremely destructive. 
“If it’s the size of a grain of sand, the satellite lives to survive another day, but if it’s the size of a baseball, it’s probably going to be catastrophic,” Theiring said. “It depends on what it hits and then it becomes very random – if it hits the solar cells and causes the half-loss of power, maybe half the mission is still working. But if it hits a key component, the satellite is dead, even if it was just a small piece of debris.” 

In November 2021, Russia tested a direct-ascent ASAT and destroyed one of its old satellites, generating more than 1,500 pieces of trackable space debris in LEO, and forcing two cosmonauts who happened to be aboard the International Space Station at the time, to take shelter in emergency vehicles. 

The International Space Station is still occasionally having to maneuver to avoid debris from the 2007 Chinese ASAT test. In April 2022, Vice President Kamala Harris announced that the United States was committed to not conducting direct-ascent ASAT testing as a matter of policy and to establishing a new international norm for responsible behavior in space. 
 
“Being able to set those norms -- and not just from a human spaceflight perspective but a space defense and space warfare perspective -- is important,” Carter said. “If nothing else, our job in the Space Force is to prevent conflict as much as it is to win in the event of a conflict. I joined the Space Force so my kids don’t have to fight the wars I did.” 
 

 

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