Anti-satellite weapons
Every spacefaring power that matters has, at some point, demonstrated that it can break someone else's satellite. The record below tracks the kinetic anti-satellite (ASAT) tests, soft-kill experiments, doctrine shifts and arms-control failures that have shaped what's possible in low Earth orbit. Read together, these incidents explain why an unowned space asset is a contingent asset.
Space-based nuclear ASAT, declassified
Washington and London declassify intelligence indicating Russian development of a space-based nuclear ASAT capability. The treaty regime built in 1967 to prevent precisely this is, on paper, still in force.
Cosmos 1408 ASAT
Russia destroys the defunct Cosmos 1408 in a direct-ascent ASAT test. The ISS crew shelters in their docked vehicles. The debris cloud will threaten low-Earth-orbit operations for years.
Cosmos 2543 inspector
Russia's Cosmos 2543 deploys what US Space Command will publicly describe as a co-orbital inspector — and an apparent kinetic projectile test. The line between inspection and interception, in orbit, is short.
Mission Shakti
India destroys its Microsat-R in orbit, joining the small club of states that have demonstrated a kinetic ASAT capability. NASA criticises the resulting debris cloud, some of which crosses the orbit of the ISS.
Anti-satellite demonstration
China kinetically destroyed its own Fengyun-1C weather satellite, creating a debris field that still threatens orbits in the most heavily used altitudes — and a political message every operator has had to reckon with since.
Carter's ASAT moratorium
President Carter unilaterally pauses American ASAT development, hoping to bring the Soviets back to arms-control talks. The talks collapse; the moratorium quietly expires and the work resumes.
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.