Russia has launched an anti-satellite missile test, US Space Command says

Russia has launched a new anti-satellite missile test in its latest push to weaponize space, U.S. Space Command officials said Wednesday (Dec. 16).

In its third anti-satellite test this year, Russia launched a direct-ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) missile, which can destroy small satellites in low Earth orbit. When a satellite is struck by a DA-ASAT missile, the field of debris left behind could pose a threat to other satellites “and irrevocably pollute the space domain,” the U.S. Space Command (USSC) said in a statement.

A USSC spokesperson told Space.com that the test occurred on Tuesday (Dec. 15) in U.S. time zones, which was Dec. 16 local time in Russia. The spokesperson was unable to provide the exact time of the launch or details about the missile’s target in space.

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“Russia publicly claims it is working to prevent the transformation of outer space into a battlefield, yet at the same time Moscow continues to weaponize space by developing and fielding on-orbit and ground-based capabilities that seek to exploit U.S. reliance on space-based systems,” U.S. Army Gen. James Dickinson, commander of the USSC, said in the statement. “Russia’s persistent testing of these systems demonstrates threats to U.S. and allied space systems are rapidly advancing”.

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