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Being the first country to put weapons in space, is far from comical. Weapons in space is like putting nukes and missiles in international waters 12 miles from

by tintor 24d ago

Being the first country to put weapons in space, is far from comical. Weapons in space is like putting nukes and missiles in international waters 12 miles from coast of all other countries, to reduce strike time.

eps 24d ago
First country to admit putting weapons in space.
- andai 24d ago
  I was wondering, didn't they have something like this fifty years ago? Wasn't that the whole point of the space program? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative
topspin 24d ago
> Being the first country to put weapons in space The distinction of first (known) deployments of orbital kinetic weapons belongs to the Soviet Union. In 1968, they tested an anti-satellite system by intercepting a target satellite with a interceptor satellite and detonating it (Kosmos-249/Kosmos-252). Later, in the 1970's, the Soviets deployed and test fired Rikhter R-23 23mm revolver cannons from Salyut military space stations.
not_a_bot_4sho 24d ago
> Being the first country to put weapons in space, is far from comical. First to publicly announce it. However, Russia beat us to the punch. Russian, China, India, and the US are all in this secret little club (but maybe not so secret anymore!)
krapp 24d ago
Russia mounted a gun on one of its space stations[0] but it didn't work out, and they were going to launch an orbital nuclear platform[1] but then everything went to shit. Less flippantly, I seriously doubt the US is the first country to put weapons in space, they're just stupid enough to admit it for some reason. I would bet money I don't have that both Russia and China have something nasty up there at least, and the US has probably launched something for Israel at some point. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3 [1]https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-rise-fall-the-soviet-death-star-14854 https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-rise-fall-the-sovie...
- wildzzz 22d ago
  There was this article from several years ago but I don't believe anything came out of it: https://breakingdefense.com/2021/08/pentagon-posed-to-unveil-classified-space-weapon/ https://breakingdefense.com/2021/08/pentagon-posed-to-unveil...
restalis 24d ago
"Putting" weapons in space, like in orbit (otherwise they won't stay in space for long) is not like putting weapons in international waters close in to the target. Any weapon that relies on moving some (projectile) mass from there will have to deal with the costly orbital mechanics, where the projectile will have to be pulled out of orbit with a lot of mass and time to reach anywhere on the planet. It's... not that good of an option for attack, compared even to existing ballistic ground-to-ground trajectories. For non-projectile orbital weapons, i.e. energy weapons, the physics are brutal, because the amount of energy necessary to reach any degree of destructive effect to a target on the ground is way too large. And all that has to also be weighted against the risk of having such weapon staying exposed in the orbit, like a sitting duck, for anyone on the ground to disable it in numerous ways. If there would be any case for having weapons in space, I don't think it will be to attack anything on the ground.

by tintor 24d ago

eps 24d ago

First country to admit putting weapons in space.

andai 24d ago
I was wondering, didn't they have something like this fifty years ago? Wasn't that the whole point of the space program? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strategic_Defense_Initiative

topspin 24d ago

> Being the first country to put weapons in space The distinction of first (known) deployments of orbital kinetic weapons belongs to the Soviet Union. In 1968, they tested an anti-satellite system by intercepting a target satellite with a interceptor satellite and detonating it (Kosmos-249/Kosmos-252). Later, in the 1970's, the Soviets deployed and test fired Rikhter R-23 23mm revolver cannons from Salyut military space stations.

not_a_bot_4sho 24d ago

> Being the first country to put weapons in space, is far from comical. First to publicly announce it. However, Russia beat us to the punch. Russian, China, India, and the US are all in this secret little club (but maybe not so secret anymore!)

krapp 24d ago

Russia mounted a gun on one of its space stations[0] but it didn't work out, and they were going to launch an orbital nuclear platform[1] but then everything went to shit. Less flippantly, I seriously doubt the US is the first country to put weapons in space, they're just stupid enough to admit it for some reason. I would bet money I don't have that both Russia and China have something nasty up there at least, and the US has probably launched something for Israel at some point. [0]https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salyut_3 [1]https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-rise-fall-the-soviet-death-star-14854 https://nationalinterest.org/feature/the-rise-fall-the-sovie...

wildzzz 22d ago
There was this article from several years ago but I don't believe anything came out of it: https://breakingdefense.com/2021/08/pentagon-posed-to-unveil-classified-space-weapon/ https://breakingdefense.com/2021/08/pentagon-posed-to-unveil...

restalis 24d ago

"Putting" weapons in space, like in orbit (otherwise they won't stay in space for long) is not like putting weapons in international waters close in to the target. Any weapon that relies on moving some (projectile) mass from there will have to deal with the costly orbital mechanics, where the projectile will have to be pulled out of orbit with a lot of mass and time to reach anywhere on the planet. It's... not that good of an option for attack, compared even to existing ballistic ground-to-ground trajectories. For non-projectile orbital weapons, i.e. energy weapons, the physics are brutal, because the amount of energy necessary to reach any degree of destructive effect to a target on the ground is way too large. And all that has to also be weighted against the risk of having such weapon staying exposed in the orbit, like a sitting duck, for anyone on the ground to disable it in numerous ways. If there would be any case for having weapons in space, I don't think it will be to attack anything on the ground.