During the Cold War, a space race developed
between the United States and the USSR, which
included the design and development of space
weapons.
The United States even thought about
dropping a nuclear bomb on the moon just to
show their world superiority.
This was a time of talking a big game without
having to follow it up.
But the question still
remains, are countries weaponizing space?
Well, there are some restrictions in place about
arming space, namely
the Outer Space Treaty.
It was signed in 1966
by over 100 countries and went into effect in
1967.
The basics of the treaty were that space is
open for everyone in a peaceful manner,
each country is responsible for what they send to
space and
no country is allowed to arm outer space with
weapons of mass destruction.
Another agreement, called The Moon Treaty,
followed in 1979 as a supplement to the Outer
Space Treaty and
prohibited the use of the moon for any hostile
acts, including installing military bases or testing
weapons.
However, this treaty was not signed by the
United States, Russia, China, or Japan, all
countries with the ability to go into space.
There is also the Test Ban Treaty of 1963, but
this only prohibits the testing of nuclear weapons
in outer space.
Now there have been a lot of talks about
countries having the capability of shooting down
satellites from earth,
including the 2007 test by China and
a US test in 2008.
But that is not what we’re talking about here.
We are referring only to weapons in space.
And
so far the only real examples of weapons in
space,
have been handguns carried by Russian
Cosmonauts.
But even they were not supposed to use
these guns in space, they just had them as
protection on their return to earth, just in case the
landed in a hostile or unsafe environment .
There is also a rumor of an aircraft cannon
aboard, but this has not been
confirmed.
So there are no guns, missiles or laser
weapons currently armed in space,
but that doesn’t mean there isn’t military
equipment in space.
Numerous countries have launched military
and spy satellites into orbit that are looking and
listening in on their enemies.
These satellites can and are currently being
used as weapons in war.
There is also a lot of speculation around a
mysterious Russian satellite orbiting Earth.
The Russian object, launched into space by
Russia last May, is maneuvering, something not
seen in other orbiting satellites.
The object is guiding itself towards other
Russian launched objects which leads some to
believe it is a revival of
a Cold War era “satellite killer” object.
Experts say it could be for civilian use, or a
repair vehicle, but if it truly is the feared “satellite
killer”, we may have our first official space
weapon.
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