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That would also take out Russia's own satellites. And satellites belonging to their potential allies. So, probably not the best move. And guess which company i

• rq1 5y ago
  I’m not sure that they have a lot of material at the same orbits. And they can move their material prior to the attack anyway.
  • mkl 5y ago
    Same orbit or not doesn't matter, what matters is distance, and things in different low orbits (most satellites) are all pretty close to Earth and hence each other when orbits line up. They definitely can't just move satellites away, as satellites have very limited manoeuvring capabilities, and changing orbit takes a lot. The EMP of Starfish Prime [1], the detonation of a nuclear bomb at 400km altitude (the altitude of the ISS), knocked out streetlights over 1400km away in Hawaii. That means it could have damaged satellites up to at least 1800km altitude (but this was in 1962), which is almost all of the low Earth orbit altitude range. With enough nukes you could probably wipe out Starlink's satellites, but with the way they're spread out, I think you'd wipe out most other satellites too. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Starfish_Prime
    • rq1 5y ago
      I meant the LEO orbit, though I have no idea of their military activities, they might as well have a ton of objects there. Thank you for the counterpoint though, it was interesting :)
• throwawaylinux 5y ago
  I don't think you can assume Russia's satellites are not hardened against EMP or able to reconfigure to defend against it.