A US Naval vessel hit a rogue spy satellite with a lone missile strike into space that appeared to have succeeded in destroying its tank of highly toxic fuel, defense officials said on Wednesday.
A network of radar systems and satellites designed for the US missile defense system confirmed that the successful interception occurred some 247km over the Pacific Ocean.
A senior Pentagon official said the missile appeared to have struck the targeted fuel tank containing hydrazine, which could have leaked potentially lethal toxic gas over a wide area if it had survived re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere.
"All indications are that the mission was a complete success. The missile appears to have destroyed the fuel tank. We will need some time to confirm the extent of destruction, but it looks good," the official said.
The operation raised concerns that the US was trying to test an anti-satellite weapon, amid rising global tensions about the militarization of space.
China responded swiftly, calling on Washington to provide more information and warning of potential international consequences.
"China is continuing to closely follow the possible harm caused by the US action to outer space security and relevant countries," foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao (
China caused an international outcry when it shot down one of its own weather satellites on Jan. 11 last year in what was widely seen as an anti-satellite test.
US Secretary of Defense Robert Gates gave the go-ahead for the missile strike as he flew from Washington to Honolulu, a base for the three AEGIS warships involved in the intercept attempt.
The USS Lake Erie, a guided missile cruiser, fired a single modified tactical SM-3 missile that hit the schoolbus-sized satellite, which was traveling at more than 11,265kph, the Pentagon said.
The objective was to hit a tank containing almost 500kg of hydrazine fuel.
Satellite debris will re-enter the Earth's atmosphere immediately because of the relatively low altitude at which the satellite was intercepted, and most will burn up on re-entry within two days, the Pentagon said. But it could take up to 40 days for all the debris to re-enter.
Russia's defense ministry said on Sunday that the US plans looked like a veiled weapons test and an "attempt to move the arms race into space."
A leading Chinese newspaper yesterday accused the US of hypocrisy in criticizing other nations' space ambitions while rejecting a proposed space treaty and firing a missile to destroy one of its own satellites.
Earlier this month, Russia and China proposed a treaty to ban weapons in space and the use or threat of force against satellites and other spacecraft. But Washington rejected the proposal as unworkable and said it instead favors confidence-building efforts, the New York Times reported.
The Chinese Communist Party's newspaper, the People's Daily, accused the US of dangerous space ambitions and double standards.
"The United States will not easily abandon its military advantage based on space technology, and it is striving to expand and fully exploit this advantage," said the front-page commentary in the overseas edition of the paper, which came out before Washington announced one of its missiles had hit the satellite.
"The United States, the world's top space power, has often accused other countries of vigorously developing military space technology, but faced with the Chinese-Russian proposal to restrict space armaments, it runs in fear from what it claimed to love," it said.
The paper said Washington was "desperately trying to explain away" its satellite shoot-down as being "for purely non-military objectives."
Also see: Soldier convicted of aggravated assault
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS