Wednesday, October 15, 2024

Attack Satellite with the recent ShenZhou-7 mission

Just thought I'd pass by a little post after watching the final presidential debate. After the Shenzhou-7 mission, Richard Fisher posted an article on strategycenter. He focused mainly on the possible military applications surrounding the mission. In fact, most of it is devoted to the 40kg BX-1 microsatellite. It's interesting that he talked about BX-1 as an attack satellite (a new form of ASAT weapon) and how it came within 45 km of the ISS. Was this really the Chinese attempt to create a space weapon? At the time, I thought that he might be onto something, but wasn't too sure about it. Just today, I read a source (that I personally view highly) state that BX-1 in fact is an attack satellite. I don't know how exactly it's suppose to function, so I guess reading that article would provide some insights into that.

It's interesting that PLA figured out a much less controversial way of testing ASAT weaponry after the 2007 test.

Update: Galrahn here, two more Chinese space articles on Asia Times by Peter J. Brown here and here. Interesting times.

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