India carried out a successful test on Thursday of its longest-range ballistic missile, the Agni III, which is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead more than 3,000 km (1,900 miles). Defense analysts say the Agni III is primarily designed to counter the military strength of China, which also has nuclear weapons.
Scientists have concluded that a Chinese missile test in January that smashed an aging weather satellite was the messiest space event ever, adding more than 1,500 big scraps of debris to a junkyard that's orbiting the Earth.
The launch over the weekend by China of a navigation satellite , its first for four years, could signal the country's challenge to the American Global Positioning System (GPS) and Europe's fledgling Galileo network, in which China is already a partner.
In an indirect rebuke of Chinese muscle-flexing in space, Israel's defense minister and Air Force chief warned that emerging anti-satellite (ASAT) capabilities in the hands of regional adversaries would require Israel to deploy its own defenses against anti-satellite threats.
China has launched its first navigation satellite in nearly four years, taking a step forward in its drive to develop a positioning system intended to eventually rival Washington's GPS and Europe's Galileo.
The US says it is reevaluating possible space cooperation with China, including joint Moon exploration, following Beijing's recent anti-satellite weapon test.
The Chinese government confirmed today that it had conducted a successful test of a new anti-satellite weapon, but said it had no intention of participating in a "space race."
The House and Senate Armed Services committees will get classified briefings Friday about the destruction of a Chinese weather satellite by a Chinese-launched ballistic missile, an incident that is being widely interpreted as the test of an anti-satellite weapon.
The Chinese military shot down one of its own aging satellites with a ground-based ballistic missile last week, demonstrating a new technological capability at a time of growing Bush administration concern over Beijing's military modernization and its intentions in space.
The Chinese military used a ground-based missile to hit and destroy one of its aging satellites orbiting more than 500 miles in space last week -- a high-stakes test demonstrating China's ability to target regions of space that are home to U.S. spy satellites and space-based missile defense systems.