In early 2008, when the United States Navy used a missile launched from
a guided missile cruiser to shoot down a failed American reconnaissance
satellite, many people in the United States and around the world
interpreted it as a response to the Chinese test of an anti-satellite
(ASAT) weapon a year before. Although the US government went out of its
way to assert that the action was entirely prompted by concern that
toxins in the satellite could reach a populated area, it is certain
that, during the weeks leading up to the shootdown, officials in the
government debated the political aspects of the act, asking how it
would be interpreted by other nations. Considering that both Russia and
India have since stated their intentions to acquire ASAT capability, it
is possible that the Chinese and American actions have had unintended
political consequences. The only question remains whether or not
political considerations actually contributed to the American
decision to shoot down the satellite. Was the Bush Administration
trying to send a message to the Chinese and the world? Perhaps someday
an enterprising researcher will obtain declassified documents of the
debate within the Bush administration and shed some public light on the
calculations.
American interest in ASATs in the 1970s was driven in large part by a
desire to counter Soviet ocean reconnaissance satellites. (credit: USAF)
It is certain that such a debate occurred because we know of periodic
debates throughout the space age about the utility of the United States
acquiring an ASAT capability. Over the fifty-plus years of the space
age the United States has had an inconsistent—some might even say
schizophrenic—attitude toward developing ASATs. In fact, for much of
that time the United States has lacked an ASAT capability. Sometimes
this was due to a policy decision to pursue arms control rather than
space weaponization. (See: “Blunt arrows: the limited utility of ASATs”,
The Space Review, June 6, 2005) Hovering over all of these decisions
was the fact that ASATs have rather limited utility; they have rarely
been viewed as magic bullets.
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