Space weapon used by China

Reuters
AUSTRALIA has joined a host of nations, including the US, to voice their concern after China conducted a weapons test in space.

China's ambassador Fu Ying was called in to meet Australian Foreign Affairs Department deputy secretary Peter Grey to explain the incident.

Launched from a fired medium-range ballistic missile, a "kinetic kill vehicle" knocked out an ageing Chinese weather satellite 865km above Earth on January 11 by slamming into it.

Ms Fu undertook to get more information from Beijing. China's Defence Ministry refused to confirm it conducted the test.

If true, it is the first known satellite-killing test in space since the US tested such a weapon in 1985.

Tests stopped because of concerns debris could harm civilian and military satellite operations on which the West increasingly relies for everything from pinpoint navigation to internet access to ATMs.

The satellite could have been pulverised into 40,000 fragments 1cm to 10cm long, said David Wright, of the Union of Concerned Scientists based in the US.

Foreign Affairs Minister Alexander Downer, in New York, said the world wanted to avoid a space arms race.

"What we don't want to see is some sort of spread, if you like, of an arms race into outer space," he said.

"The danger there is that you get into a situation where other countries, including the US, I suppose, would have to start to look for ways to protect satellites in space.

"The other concern is that the debris from the destroyed satellite could hit other satellites and damage (them)," he said.

A DFAT spokesman said the Government had sought an explanation about the Chinese Government's plans for developing and deploying weapons systems with the capability of destroying space assets.

The US, Canada and Japan also voiced concerns to China over the space test last week. Britain and South Korea were expected to follow.

"The US believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area," US National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe said.

Japan's Chief Cabinet Secretary Yasuhisa Shiozaki suggested China's lack of transparency over its military development could trigger suspicions about its motives.

Analysts said China's weather satellites would travel at about the same altitude as US spy satellites, so the test, though using old technology, represented an indirect threat to US defence systems.

The capability was no surprise to the Bush Administration, which revised US national space policy last year to assert a right to deny space access to anyone hostile to US interests. ~