Do we have international agreement about what constitutes sovereign space in the sky and what doesn’t? I mean at what height does it make it not okay to shoot down an object another country sent up? Is it at the height of the low orbit satellites? Should it be out of the earth’s gravitational pull? Or can China shoot down one of US’ low orbit satellites saying it flew over its airspace?
Low Earth satellites also need continuous active thrust/lift to maintain orbit because of the air drag. At dispense Starlink satellites come back in 1-2 days without thrusters.
Yes, or from the Chinese perspective, balloons are a legitimate response to the US violation of their space with LEO, especially kinetic attack satellites:
Are you sure they haven't only tested/demonstrated that capability? I haven't heard of an actual satellite warfare incident yet. That would be a very huge deal.
Information about satellite warfare incidents is tightly classified. Nonetheless, it is a bit of an open secret that these types of incidents (not necessarily lasers) have escalated markedly in recent years. The countries most affected by this tend to be those that are not traditional space powers but nonetheless have many space assets e.g. Western Europe.
You cannot hide satellites or debris from a satellite being destroyed. Everything close to Earth is large enough to be spotted from reflected light. Everything far away is spotted with radar. There are many private and government players across the globe who care deeply about what is occupying what orbits because it is a finite resource.
“tightly classified” … as is everything that would embarrass or expose the ever increasingly crooked and immoral people that have accumulated in the US government. Otherwise, the “citizens” may start realizing it’s basically all just lies, fraudulent, and fake; which is a bit of a problem for a multilevel Ponzi scheme.
I'm getting superfluous search results because of recent news, but yes, this was a decent news story many years ago. The US basically said "fair enough."
I think more likely I just upgraded "jammed" to destroyed - its not like I was imagining an explosion, just overwhelming its optical sensors. Problem is I remember some diplomatic back and forth, too.
So maybe I was misremembering, but I really wouldn't be surprised if a sattelite was put out of comission before, but was just not disclosed or admitted to.
