Astrofysiker: Inte som att Kina har ett rent förflutet

On 11 January 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite missile test. A Chinese weather satellite—the FY-1C polar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of 865 kilometres (537 mi), with a mass of 750 kilograms (1,650 lb)—was destroyed by a kinetic kill vehicle traveling with a speed of 8 km/s (18,000 mph) in the opposite direction (see Head-on engagement). It was launched with a multistage solid-fuel missile from Xichang Satellite Launch Center or nearby. Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine first reported the test on 17 January 2007. The report was confirmed on 18 January 2007 by a United States National Security Council (NSC) spokesperson. At first the Chinese government did not publicly confirm whether or not the test had occurred; but on 23 January 2007, the Chinese Foreign Ministry officially confirmed that a test had been conducted. China claims it formally notified the U.S., Japan and other countries about the test in advance.It was the first known successful satellite intercept test since 1985, when the United States conducted an anti-satellite missile test using an ASM-135 ASAT to destroy the P78-1 satellite. The ASM-135 ASAT was released by a F-15 Eagle at altitude of 38,100 ft (11.6 km) while the F-15 was flying at Mach 0.934. The Solwind P78-1 satellite was flying at an altitude of 345 miles (555 km).The New York Times, The Washington Times and Jane's Intelligence Review reported that this came on the back of at least two previous direct ascent tests that intentionally did not result in an intercept, on 7 July 2005 and 6 February 2006.A classified U.S. State Department cable revealed by WikiLeaks indicates that the same system was tested against a ballistic target in January 2010 in what the Chinese government publicly described as a test of "ground-based midcourse missile interception technology". That description also closely matches the Chinese government's description of another test in January 2013, which has led some analysts to conclude that it was yet another test of the same ASAT system, again against a ballistic target and not a satellite.