China's Space Program News Thread

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Overbom

Brigadier
Registered Member
ASAT tests are irresponsible. Yes that included the Chinese test as well.

I sincerely hope that the world with the UN as the core, will come together and make a treaty banning such activities.

On the other hand, the US is a bit sus. I could very easily see them trying to do some funny things trying to capture the satellite...

Lets hope that the CSS will be safe
 

Dante80

Junior Member
Registered Member
Generally speaking, shooting down a satellite is a solved problem, it's not like you need to prove it from a scientific or engineering standpoint. It's not the hardest target to smash exactly, relative speeds equivalent to a parking lot fender bender will probably break enough important bits for a mission kill.

If you want to test a specific implementation of an anti-satellite weapon, you don't even need to hit another satellite. You just need to demonstrate sufficiently precise launch and/or maneuvering.

This is just nuclear tests over again. Part science but mostly sabre rattling by all four.
 

anzha

Senior Member
Registered Member
ASAT tests are irresponsible. Yes that included the Chinese test as well.

I think ASAT tests are acceptable if you do the proper planning. That the Russians did this and endangered a friendly nation's space station (China) and the station the Russians are participants in (ISS), strikes me as Russia just not doing so or not caring.
On the other hand, the US is a bit sus. I could very easily see them trying to do some funny things trying to capture the satellite...

All nations are doing this. The idea space is a place safe from war is...not reasonable.

Lets hope that the CSS will be safe

Absolutely agree.
 

VioletsForSpring

New Member
Registered Member
ASAT tests are irresponsible. Yes that included the Chinese test as well.

I sincerely hope that the world with the UN as the core, will come together and make a treaty banning such activities.

On the other hand, the US is a bit sus. I could very easily see them trying to do some funny things trying to capture the satellite...

Lets hope that the CSS will be safe
We have no reason to capture that ancient hardware, russia just wanted actual hardware to test the ASAT on.
 

Lethe

Captain
ASAT tests are irresponsible. Yes that included the Chinese test as well.

I sincerely hope that the world with the UN as the core, will come together and make a treaty banning such activities.

That would be a positive development. Unfortunately there seems to be little appetite in the world today for arms control treaties. I think there are several dynamics at work. First, in the post-Cold War era the US has largely scorned limitations on its power, under the assumption that America's great wealth and superior technology mean that it benefits from unfettered arms activities and would stand to lose more than other nations from any restrictions that might be imposed. Reinforcing this is America's ideological aversion to negotiation and compromise, tendencies that arise from its basically religious belief in its own righteousness. Russia in turn feels threatened by evolving power dynamics (i.e. Russia is much weaker than the former Soviet Union) and NATO encirclement, and seeks to generate its own asymmetries in terms of ballistic and cruise missile capabilities. And then you have China, which has largely rejected attempts to draw it into arms control arrangements owing to the large disparities in relevant capabilities between itself and the aforementioned two nations.

I suspect that international arms control efforts will emerge again by the mid-2030s as it becomes increasingly apparent to the US that it cannot simply "roll over" China and must begin, however grudgingly, to treat it as an equal. And I hope that if and when the time comes that the US is willing to engage in that discussion, that China is willing to do so as well.
 
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