China has sent men into orbit and launched dozens of satellites, but its test of a satellite-killing weapon is shaking up perceptions about where the Chinese space program is headed.
The test, confirmed by Beijing on Tuesday after nearly a two-week silence, has drawn criticism from the U.S. and Japan, and touched off fears of an arms race in space.
The Chinese test “was an overtly military, very provocative event that cannot be spun any other way,” said Rob Hewson, the London-based editor of Jane’s Air-Launched Weapons.
The test is a shot across the bow of U.S. efforts to remain predominant in space and on the ground, where its military is heavily dependent on networks of satellites, particularly the low-altitude imaging intelligence models that help it find and hit targets. Japan, also seen as a regional rival, is similarly vulnerable, while any potential conflicts in space would put much of the industrialized world’s economies at risk, given that satellites are used to relay phone calls and data and to map weather systems.
The Jan. 11 test destroyed a defunct Chinese weather satellite by hitting it with a warhead launched on board a ballistic missile. That made China only the third country after Russia and the U.S. to shoot down anything in space.
While China’s act looked aggressive, some U.S. officials were skeptical that Beijing would do anything to attack the satellites of the U.S. or Japan–key trading partners.
