The Chinese have demonstrated other military space options, too. “The real experts in developing small, manoeuvrable satellites that change orbits and make multiple interceptions are the Chinese in their Shijian series,” he says. “The original but larger Russian manoeuvrable military satellite, Polyot, dates to 1963,” says Brian Harvey, a space analyst and author of The Rebirth of the Russian Space Program (Springer). Indeed, the Russians have a history of testing such spacecraft. Some thought it was the Russians testing a future space weapon because such orbital gymnastics are exactly what would be expected from an attack satellite designed to approach another and put it out of operation. In May 2014, the Russians launched a mysterious satellite that was seen to be manoeuvring in orbit. In this day and age, that means attacking the satellites. And in any war, one side will seek to deprive the other of their ability to function. “The reliance upon space is truly extraordinary in contemporary conflict,” says Schmitt. Space war is inevitable because today’s modern militaries use space for everything, from spy satellites to a soldier on a mountaintop using satnav to figure out exactly where he or she is. “I am convinced beyond a scintilla of doubt… It’s going to happen,” says Schmitt. These days, a frontline space war soldier is most likely to be a state-sponsored hacker sitting at a computer terminal sending rogue commands to confuse or shut down an enemy’s satellites. What has prompted this latest interest in space war is that the means by which one country can attack another in space have changed dramatically. It was a race between superpowers then it’s everything now… However, such systems are hideously expensive, probably outlawed by international treaties and the satellites that carry them are easy targets to shoot down. As they fell from orbit, the rods gathered so much speed that they delivered the explosive power of a nuclear bomb, but without the radioactive fallout. It was a kind of unmanned space bomber that carried tungsten rods to drop on unsuspecting enemies. One in particular was called the Rods from God or the kinetic bombardment weapon. During the cold war, Russia and America imagined many kinds of space weapon. Space has been eyed up as a military asset almost since the beginning of the space race.
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