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US confirms for first time it has deployed space weapons (https://www.bbc.com)

482 points by harporoeder 5 days ago | 371 comments | View on ycombinator

jonkoops 5 days ago |

Space really should be a neutral ground like Antarctica. Especially since the consequences of space debris might trigger the Kessler effect [1], denying humanity future access to low-earth orbit for the considerable future.

1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_syndrome

andai 5 days ago |

>"We urge the US side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space," AFP quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

I'm no geopolitics whiz but "we urge the USA to be unprepared for war" is a pretty comical statement to me.

nopassrecover 5 days ago |

Rather interesting timing after the US accused China of supplying Iran with high-res imagery used to support attacks on US bases, then a Chinese satellite mysteriously broke apart

Lammy 5 days ago |

Relevant:

- USAF Directed Energy Directorate home page during the years 1999–2006: https://web.archive.org/web/20060831035044/http://www.de.afr...

- USAF Directed Energy Directorate home page during the years 2009–2016: https://web.archive.org/web/20160428181404/http://www.kirtla...

- LASER Effects Test Facility fact sheet from 2002 showing a 50-kilowatt CO² LASER setting a test target on fire: https://web.archive.org/web/20070315131556/http://www.de.afr...

WillAdams 5 days ago |

C.J. Cherryh has a memorable quote on this in her _Downbelow Station_.

>They were armed, the swift exploration ships, as they had always been, venturing as they did into the unknown; but now they were used in a new way, to visit stations and pull them into line. That was bitterest of all, that the crews of the probe ships, who had been the heroes of the Beyond, became the Company enforcers.

asdff 5 days ago |

Wasn't the shuttle originally planned to be a weapon as well, capable of intercepting and sabotaging satellites using its loading bay workshop? There are also the various "mini shuttles" the three letter agencies fly around the earth for several hundred day stints of doing who knows what exactly with who knows what capabilities (other than having a similar sabotage potential as the original shuttle perhaps).

sgustard 5 days ago |

Reagan and Gorbachev came within inches of abolishing nuclear weapons, but the sticking point was the US would not back away from building space weapons. As long as warmongers are in control we will continue to live in danger and fear.

spaceuhhbased 5 days ago |

The Soviet Union placed a 23mm autocannon in orbit as part of Salyut 3, a manned space station launched in June 1974:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3#On-board_gun

Hard to be certain due to Cold War secrecy, but the consensus seems to be that they conducted several test-firings before the station was finally deorbited.

misetech 5 days ago |

I think most of the powerful countries in the world already have space weapons. Space exploration is just a facade for this.

chukar 5 days ago |

Well, that's one way to kick off a new arms race. Guess the orbital junk problem is about to get worse.

Theodores 5 days ago |

Technically the US has had 'space weapons' for many decades, due to how an intercontinental ballistic missile works.

Incidentally, the Shuttle raised concerns in the USSR because they saw those large cargo bay doors and rocket thrusters out back, to think that this was a 'delivery system'.

In the modern battlefield, 'hypersonic' missiles are the new shiny. However, any ICBM is 'hypersonic', at least during the space phase. The new meaning of hypersonic means going at 'hypersonic' speeds through the atmosphere and in the final approach. Force equals mass times acceleration, more speed means more deceleration, which means packing a bigger kinetic punch.

doe88 5 days ago |

Nothing to worry about, General Turgidson said it was just made in order to prevent a space gap.

causal 5 days ago |

Man I imagine within the first few minutes of a hot war LEO and geostationary would just light up with assets pointed at one another. I know we will have bigger problems at that point in time but I hope we are at least trying to developed weaponry that doesn't Kessler-ify all of space for the next thousand years.

hereme888 4 days ago |

The part where China "begs" the US not to weaponize space, and then talks of how China wants to militarily dominate space... Such typical tactics to delay US progress.

Steve16384 5 days ago |

I feel safer already. What's the worst that could happen? I'm sure no-one will put an AI anywhere near it.

exabrial 5 days ago |

I have a feeling every major nuclear power probably does at this point. Russia definitely has global GPS jamming capabilities in orbit: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tz23G_UXCGA

tonic_note 5 days ago |

It's most likely space-based missile defense, perhaps DOD secretly revived the Brilliant Pebbles (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brilliant_Pebbles) program?

People hear "space weapons" and think Rods from God (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment) but hitting a precise target on the ground from space is really hard, like tying to hit a bull's eye from hundreds of miles away. The more practical application is missile defense or anti-satellite stuff.

physhster 5 days ago |

Bunch of idiots with space weapons. Great!

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vondur 5 days ago |

I've assumed that they put weapons on satellites as soon as it was possible.

m4rtink 5 days ago |

So what is it, just kill sats, or something more interesting like rods-from-god, briliant pebbles, orbit to ground laser cannon or somethong else entirely ? Inquiring minds want to know! :-)

monneyboi 5 days ago |

If we get to try and explain these times in like 30 years to our (grand-)children, I'm sure it will be with a great sense of embarrasment.

I hope one of these days we can get our priorities straight.

d--b 5 days ago |

What's a space weapon?

I imagine launching anything from space to earth would be highly inefficient and inaccurate. So it must be space to space.

Space to space weapons are what? Small drones with an explosive charge? I guess that could work. These "combats" are going to be weird, because the objects are trapped in their orbits. Things are going to move very slowly with a lot of intertia.

LightBug1 5 days ago |

- Confirm openly that space weapons have been deployed.

- Open the floodgates to the open militarisation of space by all possible nation states.

- In response, justify huge increases in space defense spending budget

- Rinse / repeat to kingdom come. Same as it's always been.

Someone's getting a nice fat bonus, cigar and a blowjob tonight.

krunck 5 days ago |

The boom in private space companies all vying for USG cash was the initial indicator this was happening. The amount of mass sent to orbit so far for USRO and USSF has been huge. And it's not going to let up.

I expect "rods from god" to be used any time now.

bix6 5 days ago |

Nice we can finally get rid of those pesky starlink satellites that have ruined astronomy!

poolnoodle 5 days ago |

Who do they want to shoot in space?

eagerpace 5 days ago |

How long until the CEO of Lockheed Martin comes out asking for a ban on space weapons?

ctoth 5 days ago |

wewewedxfgdf 5 days ago |

As long as they're OK with China and other countries having space weapons then all is fine.

Everyone is equal with - they all have nukes in space sitting over each other's countries waiting to drop.

This is fine.

21asdffdsa12 5 days ago |

The biggest assets space weapon wise has Musk? Anything that can become a particlecloud taking out a orbit counts- so two constellation sattelites, that aim for one another should count?

ChrisArchitect 5 days ago |

hoistway 5 days ago |

Guess someone finally pushed that 'deploy to production' button on orbital defense. Always assumed this was already live for years.

drob518 5 days ago |

When are we getting sharks with laser beams?

MotoriX 4 days ago |

If they’re showing us this weapon, it probably means it’s already outdated...

hn_submit 5 days ago |

In the great power struggle there can be no safe havens. All the world's a stage. And the sky too.

HelloUsername 5 days ago |

> "a kinetic kill vehicle of some sort - so a vehicle that would release a projectile of some sort that would ram into a satellite and destroy it"

Semi related "Rods from God": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinetic_bombardment

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xtiansimon 5 days ago |

Because, of course, P47 has to be the first, do the thing that’s obscene. Grrr.

epolanski 5 days ago |

Feels like I struggle to wake up to a good news since a decade.

sizzle 5 days ago |

Sounds like the plot taken from For All Mankind

kibwen 5 days ago |

Behold, the real bull case for SpaceX: not space-based datacenters, colonizing Mars, or asteroid mining, but the thorough militarization of Earth's orbit by the US.

skyhvr 4 days ago |

Katsuhiro Otomo would be proud.

tyrabound 5 days ago |

> China responded on Tuesday by warning against an "arms race" in space.

> "We urge the US side to stop expanding its military capabilities and preparing for war in outer space," AFP quoted a foreign ministry spokesman as saying.

Next up; America cries rivers of victimhood when Russia and China put their far more advanced space based weapons systems into orbit and 100x as many in response because the narcissistic maniacs in the “American” educated idiot class ripped the lid off Pandora’s box because Hollywood taught them that the good guy Americans always win.

ciconia 5 days ago |

Why spend money on healthcare when you can spend it on being able to annihilate any country on earth?

t1234s 5 days ago |

With how much money we spend on the DOD and MIC it would be disappointing if we didn't have multiple arrays of space weapons and weather modification.

passive 5 days ago |

I suspect this isn't true in any meaningful way, and relates to Trump's people deceiving him. Seems 100X more likely that Trump said "what kind of weapons does space force have?" and they had to come up with something, rather than a clandestine space weapons program being successfully developed and deployed.

ChoGGi 5 days ago |

It would not surprise me at all if the Trump administration is the one to bring Kessler's nightmare to fruition.

Might be a good thing for humanity if we all get stuck here, and have to figure out how to get along or die trying...

mmaunder 5 days ago |

It’s paywalled. Is anyone reading it before replying here?

danny_codes 4 days ago |

Pathetic. US leadership is trash right now. It’s like a bunch of 3 year olds. Unbelievable.

recentlypostedj 5 days ago |

Wasn't it always known? I thought Trump had said it in his 1st term. Cant find the article thought

carterschonwald 5 days ago |

… i thought international treaties explicitly say no space weapons. ughhhh fucking wh

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junon 5 days ago |

> Golden Dome

Trump seemingly cannot resist the classic opportunity for a "1up", can he?

throw158a3 4 days ago |

America is just another rouge state like Russia and China

Eawrig05 5 days ago |

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darig 5 days ago |

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DarmokTanagra 5 days ago |

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pythonRon 5 days ago |

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vbezhenar 5 days ago |

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mars-or_wars 5 days ago |

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motbus3 5 days ago |

Cmon folks. What is happening over there? Can anyone tell me? Is it the plastic in water or something?

minipark 5 days ago |

Isn't it ironic? Spending billions on threats from space while ignoring the person on Earth who acts like Putin's favorite unsecured login.

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mrtksn 5 days ago |

How is this smart? US was already able to strike any place on the globe, what happens if this motivates the US enemies also have weapons in space and then US mainland becomes strike-able.

What was the thing that the US military previously couldn't blow up? The enemy now can have giant piece of hard metal in orbit and blow up previously %100 out of range data centers for example.

Very unwise action on US part.

ck2 5 days ago |

the idea that the orange infant can order the use of weapons in space should be terrifying to everyone regardless of politics

no-one is stupid enough anymore to say "oh he would never"

or "only against people we don't like"

No, of course he would use it against Canada or Greenland if he woke up on the wrong side of the bed or didn't sleep at all

He clearly has rage fits which is one of the early signs of dementia

He would most definitely order the use of space weapons

I am really surprised he has not nuked some part of Iran yet, innocent civilians be damned but there are still 800 days left so here's hoping we don't wake up to that headline