Chinese Missile Pulverizes Satellite

Welcome to the future.  The international community has voiced its disapproval of China's January 11th anti-satellite test in which the Chinese military fired a ballistic missile into an old Chinese weather satellite 537 miles above the earth.  The satellite destroyed by the missile broke into 40,000 fragments, half of which are expected to orbit in space for more than a decade.  Space debris has been proven to hinder all types of satellite communication.  While Canada and Australia were the first nations to say, "Hey China, what are you doin'?" the U.S. National Security spokesperson said Thursday, "the U.S. believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area.  We and other countries have expressed our concern regarding this action to the Chinese."  According to a MSNBC article Thursday, Britain, Japan and South Korea are expected to issue statements this week denouncing the test.  Could we be headed for space warfare?  Aviation Week and Space Technology was the first to break the story of the anti-satellite test.  The journal reported that on January 11th at approximately 5:28 p.m. EST, the Chinese Feng Yun 1C (FY-1C) polar orbit weather satellite launched in 1999 was pulverized by an asat system launched from or near the Xichang Space Center in China's Sichuan province.  The emerging Chinese space program and capabilities have worried the world for years now, prompting U.S. President George Bush to initiate the first new U.S. space policy in ten years.  As Aviation Week points out, the test demonstrates to the world that China now has the ability to disrupt the communication satellites and imaging reconnaissance satellites operated by the U.S., Russia, Japan, Israel and Western Europe.  While the West has yet to confirm any details of China's test, last week's anti-satellite test will surely force space-enabled nations to arm themselves for what could be the world's first international space war.

•MSNBC: Chinese Anti-Satellite Test Sparks Concern
•Aviation Week & Space Technology: Chinese Test Anti-Satellite Weapon

 China
 Shanghai Daily
 China Daily
 Xinhua
 People's Daily
 South China Morning Post
 News From China
 Shanghai Expat
 That's Shanghai
 City Weekend
 Danwei
 The Peking Duck
 Sinosplice
 Truth About China
 Image Thief
 Chinese Pod


 U.S. News
 New York Times
 New York Post
 New York Daily News
 Boston Globe
 Chicago Tribune
 Detroit Free Press 
 Los Angeles Times
 Miami Herald
 Michigan Daily
 USA Today
 Washington Post
 CNN
 MSNBC
 Google News
 Yahoo! News
 TIME
 Newsweek

 Sports
 ESPN
 CBS Sportsline
 Major League Baseball
 NBA
 NFL
 Sports Illustrated
 NYGMen
 Deadspin
 Bronx Banter
 MGoBlue
 Michigan Sports Center
 Yardbarker


 Entertainment
 People
 Rolling Stone
 Internet Movie Database
 Spin
 TMZ
 Perez Hilton
 The Wowz
 Pollstar
 Maxim
 J-L Cauvin

 

 Blogs
 Huffington Post
 Media Bistro
 Gorilla Mask
 Wonkette
 Crooks and Liars
 Gawker
 The Largest Minority
 Truthdig