The Pentagon is developing sensors to pinpoint a ground-based laser attempting to blind one of its spy satellites. The move will be interpreted as a further step towards the militarisation of space, say some experts.
Pentagon officials have privately voiced concern that malfunctioning spy satellites might actually be the target of “illumination” by Chinese forces testing [...]

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The missile-defense interceptor was converted to an antisatellite capability in little more than a month. No expensive research and development program. No battles with Congress over money. No starting from scratch on white boards in some lab. This demonstration of military agility has to give any adversary pause.
“This was uncharted territory,” said General James Cartwright [...]

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Watch two videos - one showing the missile launch and the other showing the satellite interception.
See video here!

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The US Defense Department said late Wednesday it had successfully used a ship-board missile to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite before it plummeted to Earth. “At approximately 10:26 pm today (0326 GMT Thursday), a US Navy Aegis warship, the USS Lake Erie, fired a single modified tactical standard missile 3, hitting the satellite [...]

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The Bush administration’s attempt to shoot down an out-of-control spy satellite as early as this evening will help the military advance its anti-missile and anti-satellite planning and technology, according to space weapons experts and analysts. Both fields are of high interest to the military and of high concern for many other nations.
While U.S. officials have [...]

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China is concerned by U.S. plans to shoot down an ailing spy satellite and is considering what “preventative measures” to take, the Foreign Ministry said on Sunday.
“The Chinese government is paying close attention to how the situation develops and demands the U.S. side fulfill its international obligations and avoids causing damage to security in outer [...]

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MOSCOW — Russia’s Defense Ministry said Saturday that U.S. military plans to shoot down a damaged spy satellite carrying toxic fuel could be a veiled test of U.S. missiles’ capability to down enemy satellites.
The Ministry accused the U.S. military of failing to provide “enough arguments” to back its plan to smash the satellite next [...]

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Pentagon reveals plans to shoot down spy
Times Online, UK - 3 hours ago
US officials say that the craft carries no nuclear material. USA 193 was launched on December 14, 2006, from the Vandenberg US Air Force Base in California. …
US officials say broken satellite will be shot down International Herald Tribune
US will shoot down plummeting satellite International [...]

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Russia said on Wednesday Iran’s test launch of a rocket raised suspicions about the real nature of Tehran’s atomic programme, in what could signal a hardening of its stance towards the Islamic Republic
Iran launched a rocket on Monday designed to carry its first locally-made research satellite next year, showing the country’s advances in ballistics at [...]

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Iran’s new space center built to send a research satellite into orbit is a “troubling development” because it employs the same technology used for producing long- range ballistic missiles, the U.S. State Department said.
Read More…
Iran fires rocket ‘into space’, plans satellite for ‘09
Register, UK - 45 minutes ago
Iran already claims intermediate-range ballistic missile capability which [...]

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A large American spy satellite is expected to fall to Earth some time in the next month, officials said yesterday.
It is unclear where the space debris might come down, but it could hit ground in late February or March. It is also not known whether the satellite could contain potentially hazardous materials, such as a [...]

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The pre-dawn launch Monday of a new reconnaissance satellite further establishes Israel as one of the world’s superpowers in space, and grants it an important further intelligence advantage over its rivals.
The primary intelligence contribution of the TECSAR satellite, manufactured by Israel Aerospace Industries, lies in improving capabilities of intelligence gathering and coverage over Iran.
Read More…
Israel [...]

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This is part three of MIT researcher Geoffrey Forden’s look at the possibilities of an all-out Chinese assault on American satellites. Click for parts one and two.
If China was to attack the strategically important deep-space satellites it would give the United States at least an indication of the impending attack two or more weeks prior [...]

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China is to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and its third manned mission in 2008, flexing its muscle in space in a year in which it will host the summer Olympics.
Read More…
China ramps up its space programme Register
China to launch 15 rockets, 17 satellites and 1 space craft in 2008 People’s Daily Online
all 92 news [...]

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Russia launches military satellite
Gulf Times, Qatar - 9 hours ago
Russia’s military has just over 60 orbiting satellites, which “encompass all kinds of military functions from communications to reconnaissance,” Itar-Tass …
Russia launches military satellite United Press International
Russia Successfully Sends New Military Satellite To Orbit AHN
Military launch new communication satellite RussiaToday
Kyiv Post - ITAR-TASS
all 28 news articles »

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China’s anti-satellite and space warfare program includes plans to destroy or incapacitate ‘every enemy space vehicle’ that passes over China.
The report said that China also is developing civilian technology that can be applied to military space programs and is acquiring the “ability to destroy or temporarily incapacitate every enemy space vehicle when it is located [...]

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Beat our satellites, beat us.
The Chinese know it. The Russians know it. And religious fanatics are bound to figure it out.
The Chinese are developing the capability to attack our satellite network; the Russians already have it - and terrorists would love to get it.
Over the years, a number of analysts, such as Lt.-Col. John [...]

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Israel’s Ministry of Defense has secured tacit U.S. government consent for a prospective remote sensing deal with China based on the Eros B, a commercial, high-resolution satellite nearly identical to the Israeli military’s Ofeq-5.
Sources here and in Washington confirmed the U.S. greenlight for Beijing’s participation in a unique operational program run by Imagesat International (ISI), [...]

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Mysterious transmissions assaulting Israeli satellite TV broadcasts
International Herald Tribune, France - 11 hours ago
6, the day Israeli warplanes slipped past Syria’s Russian-made air defense systems, attacked a military target deep inside the country and escaped …
Mysterious ’snow’ disrupts Israeli TV Telegraph.co.uk
Israeli raid on Syria wrecks TV viewers’ pleasure back home Scotsman
all 16 news articles »

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A joint mission developed by China and Brazil was shot into an orbit circling Earth’s poles to snap detailed images of the globe during an early Wednesday launch from China’s northeastern space base.
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Images from the new high-resolution camera will also be useful in urban planning and military intelligence applications for China and Brazil.
Read More…

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In a unique flight scheduled for liftoff from India Sept. 17-20, Israel’s first “Polaris/TecSat” military imaging radar satellite is to be launched along with India’s first military recon spacecraft. They will be fired into an approximately 600-km. (372-mi.) polar orbit atop the same powerful Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV).
The mission, from India’s launch site on [...]

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