Anti-satellite weapon
Context:
- Recently reports from various sources referred to some kind of Russian space-based weapon.
What are anti-satellite weapons?
- They are designed to debilitate and/or destroy satellites which are already in orbit and are operational.
- ASAT weapons violate the Outer Space Treaty (OST) through the OST’s Article VII.
- The article holds parties to the treaty liable for damaging satellites belonging to other parties, and Article IX, which asks parties to refrain from the “harmful contamination” of space.
- Russia as in the form of the erstwhile Soviet Union has had ASAT capabilities since at least the year 1968.
- While the Cold War motivated ASAT weapon tests on either side of the Atlantic, the respective programmes refused to decrease once the relations thawed.
- Most of these weapons are kinetic which means they can destroy satellites in orbit by rocketing into them or detonating an explosive near them, and blowing them to pieces.
- Because of the low gravity and lack of an atmosphere, the resulting debris can stay in orbit for a long period of time depending on their size.
- This result violates Article IX of the Outer Space Treaty.
Are there space-based nuclear weapons?
- In a high-altitude test in 1962 called Starfish Prime, the U.S. detonated a thermonuclear bomb which is 400 km above ground.
- It remains the largest nuclear test which was conducted in space.
- A Thor rocket launched the warhead to a point west of Hawaii, where its detonation had a yield of around 1.4 megatonnes.
- Most importantly, it set off an electromagnetic pulse (EMP) much larger than physicists had expected and it damaged a few hundred street-lights in Hawaii, 1,500 km away.
- The charged particles and radiation emitted by the blast became ensnared in and accelerated by the earth’s magnetic field which distorted the ionosphere and resulting in bright aurorae.
- Starfish Prime was also part of the U.S.’s high-altitude nuclear tests in 1962.
- The Soviet Union also conducted such tests around then with almost similar effects.
- For example, Test 184 on October 22, 1962, detonated nearly a 300-kilotonne warhead 290 km above ground.
- The resulting EMP induced a very high current in more than 500 km of electric cables and eventually triggered a fire which burned down a power plant.
About Outer Space Treaty:
- The Outer Space Treaty which is formally known as the Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies, is a multilateraltreaty that forms the basis of international space law.
- It was negotiated and drafted under the auspices of the United Nations and it was opened for signature in the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Unionon 27 January 1967, entering into force on 10 October 1967.
- As of August 2023 there are 114 countries which are parties to the treaty including all major spacefaring nations and another 22 are signatories.
Key provisions of the Outer Space Treaty:
- It prohibits nuclear weapons in space;
- Limit the use of the Moon and all other celestial bodies to peaceful purposes;
- The treaty establishes that the space shall be freely explored and used by all nations; and
- It precludes any country from claiming sovereignty over outer space or any celestial body.
- Although the treaty forbids establishing military bases, testing weapons and conducting military maneuvers on celestial bodies, the treaty does not expressly ban all military activities in space, nor the establishment of military space forces or the placement of conventional weapons in space.
- Article II of the treaty explicitly forbids any government from claiming a celestial body like Moon or a planet as its own territory, whether by declaration, occupation, or “any other means”.
- However, the state which launches a space object, such as a satellite or space station, retains jurisdiction and control over that object; by extension and also a state is also liable for damages caused by its space object.
