The first anti-satellite technologies were developed during the cold war, with the Soviet
Istrebitel Sputnikov programme and the American
SAINT. Since, other states have also developed or researched ASAT capabilities.
Soviet Union illustration of the IS system attacking a target Ground-based-laser- ASAT The specter of bombardment satellites and the reality of ballistic missiles stimulated the Soviet Union to explore defensive space weapons. The Soviet Union first tested the
Polyot interceptor in 1963 and successfully tested an orbital anti-satellite (ASAT) weapon in 1968. According to some accounts,
Sergei Korolev started some work on the concept in 1956 at his
OKB-1, while others attribute the work to
Vladimir Chelomei's
OKB-52 around 1959. What is certain is that at the beginning of April 1960,
Nikita Khrushchev held a meeting at his summer residence in Crimea, discussing an array of defence industry issues. Here, Chelomei outlined his rocket and spacecraft program, and received a go-ahead to start development of the
UR-200 rocket, one of its many roles being the launcher for his anti-satellite project. The decision to start work on the weapon, as part of the
Istrebitel Sputnikov (IS) () program, was made in March 1961. The IS system was "co-orbital", approaching its target over time and then exploding a shrapnel warhead close enough to kill it. The missile was launched when a target satellite's
ground track rises above the launch site. Once the satellite is detected, the missile is launched into orbit close to the targeted satellite. It takes 90 to 200 minutes (or one to two orbits) for the missile interceptor to get close enough to its target. The missile is guided by an on-board radar. The interceptor, which weighs , may be effective up to one kilometre from a target. Delays in the UR-200 missile program prompted Chelomei to request R-7 rockets for prototype testing of the IS. The Polyot 1 and 2, launched on 1 November 1963 and 12 April 1964 respectively, carried out one such intercept test in early 1964. Later in the year Khrushchev cancelled the UR-200 in favour of the R-36, forcing the IS to switch to this launcher, whose space launcher version was developed as the
Tsyklon-2. Delays in that program led to the introduction of a simpler version, the 2A, which launched its first IS test on 27 October 1967, and a second on 28 April 1968. Further tests carried out against a special target spacecraft, the DS-P1-M, which recorded hits by the IS warhead's shrapnel. In November 1968, 4 years after
Polyot 1 and 2 were tested for a potential Satellite intercept, Kosmos 248 was successfully destroyed by Kosmos 252 which came within the 5km 'kill radius' and destroyed Kosmos 248 by detonating it's warhead. A total of 23 launches have been identified as being part of the
IS test series. The system was declared operational in February 1973. Testing resumed in 1976 as a result of the US work on the
Space Shuttle. Elements within the Soviet space industry convinced
Leonid Brezhnev that the Shuttle was a single-orbit weapon that would be launched from
Vandenberg Air Force Base, manoeuvre to avoid existing anti-ballistic missile sites, bomb Moscow in a first strike, and then land. Although the Soviet military was aware these claims were false, Brezhnev believed them and ordered a resumption of IS testing along with a Shuttle of their own. As part of this work the IS system was expanded to allow attacks at higher altitudes and was declared operational in this new arrangement on 1 July 1979. However, in 1983,
Yuri Andropov ended all IS testing and all attempts to resume it failed. Ironically, it was at about this point that the US started its own testing in response to the Soviet program. In the early 1980s, the Soviet Union also started developing a counterpart to the US air-launched ASAT system, using modified
MiG-31D 'Foxhounds' (at least six of which were completed) as the launch platform. The system was called 30P6 "Kontakt", the missile used is 79M6. The USSR also experimented with arming the
Almaz space stations with
Rikhter R-23 aircraft auto-cannons. Another Soviet design was the
11F19DM Skif-DM/Polyus, an orbital megawatt laser that failed on launch in 1987. In 1987,
Mikhail Gorbachev visited
Baikonur Cosmodrome and was shown an anti-satellite system called "Naryad" (Sentry), also known as 14F11, launched by
UR-100N rockets.
United States missile missile launch on 13 September 1985, which destroyed
P78-1 In the late 1950s, the
US Air Force started a series of advanced
strategic missile projects under the designation Weapon System WS-199A. One of the projects studied under the 199A umbrella was
Martin's
Bold Orion air-launched ballistic missile (ALBM) for the
B-47 Stratojet, based on the rocket motor from the
Sergeant missile. Twelve test launches were carried out between 26 May 1958 and 13 October 1959, but these were generally unsuccessful and further work as an ALBM ended. The system was then modified with the addition of an
Altair upper stage to create an anti-satellite weapon with a range. Only one test flight of the anti-satellite mission was carried out, making a mock attack on the
Explorer 6 at an altitude of . To record its flight path, the
Bold Orion transmitted telemetry to the ground, ejected flares to aid visual tracking, and was continuously tracked by radar. The missile successfully passed within of the satellite, which is suitable for use with a nuclear weapon, but useless for conventional warheads. A similar project carried out under 199A,
Lockheed's
High Virgo, was initially another ALBM for the
B-58 Hustler, likewise based on the Sergeant. It too was adapted for the anti-satellite role, and made an attempted intercept on
Explorer 5 on 22 September 1959. However, shortly after launch communications with the missile were lost and the camera packs could not be recovered to see if the test was successful. In any event, work on the WS-199 projects ended with the start of the
GAM-87 Skybolt project. Simultaneous
US Navy projects were also abandoned although smaller projects did continue until the early 1970s. The use of
high-altitude nuclear explosions to destroy satellites was considered after the tests of the first conventional missile systems in the 1960s. During the
Hardtack Teak test in 1958 observers noted the damaging effects of the
electromagnetic pulse (EMP) caused by the explosions on electronic equipment, and during the
Starfish Prime test in 1962 the EMP from a warhead detonated over the Pacific damaged three satellites and also disrupted power transmission and communications across the Pacific. Further testing of weapons effects was carried out under the
DOMINIC I series. An adapted version of the nuclear armed
Nike Zeus was used for an ASAT from 1962. Codenamed
Mudflap, the missile was designated DM-15S and a single missile was deployed at the
Kwajalein atoll until 1966 when the project was ended in favour of the USAF
Thor-based
Program 437 ASAT which was operational until 6 March 1975. Another area of research was
directed-energy weapons, including a nuclear-explosion powered
X-ray laser proposal developed at
Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) in 1968. Other research was based on more conventional
lasers or
masers and developed to include the idea of a satellite with a fixed laser and a deployable mirror for targeting. LLNL continued to consider more edgy technology but their X-ray laser system development was cancelled in 1977 (although research into X-ray lasers was resurrected during the 1980s as part of the
SDI). launched from
USS Lake Erie, a
US Navy Ticonderoga class cruiser, 2005 intercepted by an
ASM-135 ASATs were generally given low priority until 1982, when information about a successful USSR program became widely known in the west. A "crash program" followed, which developed into the
Vought ASM-135 ASAT, based on the
AGM-69 SRAM with an Altair upper stage. The system was carried on a modified
F-15 Eagle that carried the missile directly under the central line of the plane. The F-15's guidance system was modified for the mission and provided new directional cuing through the pilot's
head-up display, and allowed for mid-course updates via a
data link. The first launch of the new anti-satellite missile took place in January 1984. The first, and only, successful interception was on 13 September 1985. The F-15 took off from
Edwards Air Force Base, climbed to and vertically launched the missile at the
Solwind P78-1, a US gamma ray spectroscopy satellite orbiting at , which was launched in 1979. The last piece of debris from the destruction of Solwind P78-1, catalogued as COSPAR 1979-017GX, SATCAT 16564, deorbited 9 May 2004. Although successful, the program was cancelled in 1988. used to destroy
USA-193 USA-193 was an American
reconnaissance satellite, which was launched on 14 December 2006 by a
Delta II rocket, from
Vandenberg Air Force Base. It was reported about a month after launch that the satellite had failed. In January 2008, it was noted that the satellite was decaying from
orbit at a rate of per day. After publicly announcing its intention to do so a week earlier, on 21 February 2008, the US Navy destroyed USA-193 in
Operation Burnt Frost, using a ship-fired
RIM-161 Standard Missile 3 about 247 km (153 mi) above the Pacific Ocean. That test produced 174 pieces of orbital debris large enough to detect that were cataloged by the US military. While most of the debris re-entered the Earth's atmosphere within a few months, a few pieces lasted slightly longer because they were thrown into higher orbits. The final piece of detectable USA-193 debris re-entered on 28 October 2009. On 20 February 2008, it was announced that the launch was carried out successfully and an explosion was observed consistent with the destruction of the hydrazine fuel tank. The United States has since ceased the testing of direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles, having outlawed the practice in 2022.
Strategic Defense Initiative and the Cold War The era of the
Strategic Defense Initiative (proposed in 1983) focused primarily on the development of systems to defend against nuclear warheads, however, some of the technologies developed may be useful also for anti-satellite use. The Strategic Defense Initiative gave the US and Soviet ASAT programs a major boost; ASAT projects were adapted for
ABM use and the reverse was also true. The initial US plan was to use the already-developed MHV as the basis for a space based constellation of about 40 platforms deploying up to 1,500 kinetic interceptors. By 1988 the US project had evolved into an extended four-stage development. The initial stage would consist of the
Brilliant Pebbles defense system, a
satellite constellation of 4,600 kinetic interceptors (KE ASAT) of each in
Low Earth orbit and their associated tracking systems. The next stage would deploy the larger platforms and the following phases would include the laser and charged particle beam weapons that would be developed by that time from existing projects such as
MIRACL. The first stage was intended to be completed by 2000 at a cost of around $125 billion. Research in the US and the Soviet Union was proving that the requirements, at least for orbital based energy weapon systems, were, with available technology, close to impossible. Nonetheless, the strategic implications of a possible unforeseen breakthrough in technology forced the USSR to initiate massive spending on research in the
12th Five Year Plan, drawing all the various parts of the project together under the control of
GUKOS and matching the US proposed deployment date of 2000. Ultimately, the Soviet Union approached the point of experimental implementation of orbital laser platforms with the (failed) launch of
Polyus. Both countries began to reduce expenditure from 1989 and the Russian Federation unilaterally discontinued all SDI research in 1992. Research and Development (both of ASAT systems and other space based/deployed weapons) has, however, reported to have been resumed under the government of
Vladimir Putin as a counter to renewed US Strategic Defense efforts post
Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. However, the status of these efforts, or indeed how they are being funded through
National Reconnaissance Office projects of record, remains unclear. The US has begun working on a number of programs which could be foundational for a space-based ASAT. These programs include the Experimental Spacecraft System (
USA-165), the
Near Field Infrared Experiment (NFIRE), and the space-based interceptor (SBI).
Russia After the
collapse of the Soviet Union, the MiG-31D project was put on hold due to reduced defence expenditures. However, in August 2009,
Alexander Zelin announced that the
Russian Air Force had resumed this program. The
Sokol Eshelon is a prototype laser system based on an
A-60 airplane which is reported to be restarting development in 2012. Three more launches were reportedly held in December 2016, on 26 March 2018, and on 23 December 2018the latter two from a TEL. A new type of ASAT missile was seen carried by a MiG-31 in September 2018. On 15 April 2020,
US officials said Russia conducted a direct ascent anti-satellite missile test that could take out spacecraft or satellites in
low Earth orbit. A new test launch took place on 16 December 2020. In November 2021,
Kosmos 1408 was successfully destroyed by a Russian anti-satellite missile in a test, causing a debris field that affected the
International Space Station. In 2024, U.S. intelligence sources hinted that Russia was working on an anti-satellite weapon with some sort of nuclear technology, though it was unclear if it was a nuclear weapon or merely a nuclear-powered device.
China debris one month after its disintegration by the Chinese ASAT On 11 January 2007, the People's Republic of China successfully destroyed a defunct Chinese weather satellite,
Fengyun-1C (FY-1C, COSPAR ). The destruction was reportedly carried out by an SC-19 ASAT missile with a kinetic kill
warhead similar in concept to the American
Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle. FY-1C was a weather satellite orbiting Earth in polar orbit at an altitude of about , with a mass of about . Launched in 1999, it was the fourth satellite in the
Fengyun series. The missile was launched from a mobile Transporter-Erector-Launcher (TEL) vehicle at
Xichang () and the warhead destroyed the satellite in a head-on collision at an extremely high relative velocity. Evidence suggests that the same SC-19 system was also tested in 2005, 2006, 2010, and 2013. In January 2007
China demonstrated a satellite knock out whose detonation alone caused more than 40,000 new chunks of debris with a diameter larger than one centimeter and a sudden increase in the total amount of debris in orbit. In May 2013, the Chinese government announced the launch of a suborbital rocket carrying a scientific payload to study the upper ionosphere. However, US government sources described it as the first test of a new ground-based ASAT system. An open source analysis by
Secure World Foundation, based in part on commercial satellite imagery, found that it may indeed have been a test of a new ASAT system that could potentially threaten US satellites in
geostationary Earth orbit. Similarly on 5 February 2018, China tested an exoatmospheric ballistic missile with the potential to be used as an ASAT weapon, the Dong Neng-3, with state media reporting that the test was purely defensive and it achieved its desired objectives. The
HQ-29 () is an
anti-ballistic missile (ABM) and anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) system.
India interceptor for an ASAT test in March 2019 In a televised press briefing during the 97th Indian Science Congress held in Thiruvananthapuram, the
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Director General Rupesh announced that India was developing the necessary technology that could be combined to produce a weapon to destroy enemy satellites in orbit. On 10 February 2010, DRDO Director-General and Scientific Advisor to the Defence Minister, Dr.
Vijay Kumar Saraswat stated that India had "all the building blocks necessary" to integrate an anti-satellite weapon to neutralize hostile satellites in
low Earth and
polar orbits. In April 2012, DRDO's chairman V. K. Saraswat said that India possessed the critical technologies for an ASAT weapon from radars and interceptors developed for
Indian Ballistic Missile Defence Programme. In July 2012, Ajay Lele, an
Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses fellow, wrote that an ASAT test would bolster India's position if an international regime to control the proliferation of ASATs similar to
NPT were to be established. He suggested that a low-orbit test against a purpose-launched satellite would not be seen as irresponsible. The programme was sanctioned in 2017. On 27 March 2019, India successfully conducted an ASAT test called
Mission Shakti. The interceptor was able to strike a test satellite at a altitude in
low Earth orbit (LEO), thus successfully testing its ASAT missile. The interceptor was launched at around 05:40 UTC at the Integrated Test Range (ITR) in
Chandipur, Odisha and hit its target
Microsat-R after 168 seconds. The operation was named
Mission Shakti. The missile system was developed by the
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO)—a research wing of the Indian defence services. With this test, India became the fourth nation with anti-satellite missile capabilities. India stated that this capability is a deterrent and is not directed against any nation. In a statement released after the test,
Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that the test was conducted at low altitude to ensure that the resulting debris would "decay and fall back onto the Earth within weeks". According to
Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at
Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, some debris might persist for a year, but most should burn up in the atmosphere within several weeks. Brian Weeden of Secure World Foundation agreed, but warned about the possibility of some fragments getting boosted to higher orbits. US
Air Force Space Command said that it was tracking 270 pieces of
debris from the test. Following the test, acting
United States Secretary of Defense Patrick Shanahan warned about the risks of space debris caused by ASAT tests, but later added that he did not expect debris from the Indian test to last. The
United States Department of State acknowledged
Ministry of External Affairs' statement on space debris and reiterated its intention to pursue shared interests in space including on space security with India. Russia acknowledged India's statement on the test not being targeted against any nation and invited India to join the Russian–Chinese proposal for a
treaty against weaponisation of space. missile
Israel The Arrow 3 or Hetz 3 is an anti-ballistic missile, currently in service. It provides exo-atmospheric interception of ballistic missiles. It is also believed (by experts such as Prof. Yitzhak Ben Yisrael, chairman of the
Israel Space Agency), that it will operate as an ASAT. In November 2023, Israel's Arrow 3 missile defense system successfully intercepted a missile above the Earths atmosphere launched by Houthi rebels in Yemen. While it was not a satellite, this was the first time a missile was intercepted in space during wartime; demonstrating the theoretical capabilities of such a system to intercept a satellite. == List of destructive anti-satellite tests ==