Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty prohibits nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space. It's pretty hard to hide the fact that a satellit

Article IV of the Outer Space Treaty prohibits nuclear weapons or other weapons of mass destruction in space. It's pretty hard to hide the fact that a satellite is full of nuclear material given that they stick around, but the shuttle would just be up for a little bit so it would be easier to hide things in it. The Soviets did like to put anthrax warheads on their ICBMs targeted at cities and I suppose those won't have any distinctive emissions signature. But then again keeping anthrax spores alive in space with the thermal cycling and radiation can't be easy. EDIT: But then again anthrax is a strictly counter-value rather can counter-force weapons. You would hypothetically put warheads in space for a quick counter-force strike so that plan wouldn't make sense.