Soviet ASAT testing resumes
Moscow ramps up co-orbital interceptor tests against its own Cosmos targets. Washington commissions an ASAT response of its own, and any near-term arms-control deal in space is shelved for a generation.
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After a brief lull, the Soviet Istrebitel Sputnikov programme resumes flight tests of its co-orbital interceptor against its own Cosmos targets in low Earth orbit. The renewed campaign confirms what Pentagon planners had warned for a decade — that operational satellites are vulnerable to a kinetic weapon already in the inventory of a single great power.
Washington responds by formally re-launching its own ASAT effort under the US Air Force, ending any near-term prospect of an arms-control freeze. From this moment forward, every nation flying anything important in orbit knows there is a working button that can be pressed against it.
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