May 2, 2023

• Popular Mechanics: Patterns of activity at a remote military base suggest China could be using a ground-based laser weapon to try to hack Western satellites. China recognizes that satellites give Western military forces, particularly the U.S. military, a tremendous advantage in wartime. The news comes after recent Pentagon leaks claimed that China plans to “deny, exploit, or hijack” enemy satellites.
• A recent report from the Secure World Foundation says that China has been pursuing directed-energy anti-satellite (“counterspace”) weapons since the 1960s. It states there are three anti-satellite laser facilities spread across the country, including the one at Korla. The ground-based lasers are reportedly part of the People’s Liberation Army Strategic Support Force, a branch of the Chinese military responsible for “strategic” non-nuclear functions, including military space, cyberspace, electronic warfare, information warfare, and psychological warfare.

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April 26, 2023

• DoD News: [Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy] Plumb testified today at the House Armed Services Strategic Forces subcommittee hearing on national security space activities.
• Over just the last few years, the quantity and quality of counterspace threats have increased significantly, he added. China has already fielded ground-based counterspace weapons and it continues to seek new methods to hold U.S. satellites at risk. China is building a space architecture that enables its military to execute long-range precision strikes, he said. “China ultimately seeks to challenge our ability to conduct joint operations in the Indo-Pacific,” Plumb said. Russia is developing, testing and fielding its own counterspace systems, including ground-based and space-based kinetic anti-satellite weapons. “These are aimed at degrading and denying U.S. space-based services,” he said.
• The president’s $33.3 billion space budget for fiscal year 2024 invests in the capabilities necessary to meet these challenges. This investment reflects an increase of roughly 15% from FY23, he said. The budget request will accelerate resilient design architectures and provide investments in research, development, testing and experimentation, he said, adding that it will further integrate space-based services across the joint force. Plumb said he’s “laser focused” on three priorities: space control, space cooperation and space classification.

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March 15, 2023

• The U.S. Space Force chief of space operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman in congressional testimony March 14 singled out China as the “most immediate threat” as it continues to weaponize its space technology. Among the most concerning of China’s technologies, he said, are ground-based lasers designed to disrupt and degrade satellite sensors, electronic warfare jammers targeting GPS and communications satellites, and anti-satellite missiles.
• China is “likely pursuing anti-satellite systems able to destroy satellites in geosynchronous orbit,” Saltzman said in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee’s strategic forces subcommittee. “They are testing on-orbit satellite systems which could be weaponized as they have already shown the capability to physically control and move other satellites.”

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March 7, 2023

• Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman offered a new working theory of space operations, calling it “Competitive Endurance,” and defining it as a means of ensuring U.S. access to space and ensuring competition with space powers like China and Russia does not devolve into conflict or crisis.
• “I intend Competitive Endurance to be a starting point for a dialogue I believe is critical—absolutely critical—to the success of our young service,” Saltzman said. “The goal of this theory of success is to maximize our ability to deter a crisis or conflict from extending into space and, if necessary, allow the joint force to achieve space superiority while also maintaining the safety, security, and long-term sustainability of the space domain.”

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March 3, 2023

• The U.S. Defense Department on March 3 released updated guidelines for safe and responsible space operations.
• These guidelines were issued Feb. 9 by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a memo that lays out five “tenets of responsible behavior in space.” Austin first released the tenets in July 2021. The update reflects recommendations from U.S. Space Command and includes specific behaviors for each of the five tenets. U.S. Space Command said the list of behaviors was developed in consultation with the military services, DoD leaders, the National Reconnaissance Office, the Department of State and the National Security Council staff.
• The guidelines apply to military operations, not commercial or civil space activities.

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February 19, 2023

• Space has “fundamentally changed” in just a few years due to a growing arms race, a U.S. general said, singling out China as the “most challenging threat,” followed by Russia. “We are seeing a whole mix of weapons being produced by our strategic competitors,” General Bradley Chance Saltzman, the U.S. chief of space operations, told a group of media, including AFP.
• “The most challenging threat is China but also Russia,” he said, speaking late Saturday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, listing technologies including anti-satellite missiles, ground-based directed energy and orbit interception capacities.

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February 15, 2023

• The Space Force made resilience its No. 1 priority in 2022, with proliferated constellations of satellites a focus of this program to ensure systems remain operable even if some elements are lost. This year, resiliency is “baked into all the conversations,” said assistant secretary of Defense for space policy John F. Plumb, but the service now takes a more expansive view of the term.
• “I think it is recognized now throughout the department that resilience isn’t just proliferated orbits,” Plumb said Feb. 14 on one of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies webcasts. “That may be part of it. But if your ground segment is one station, that’s not resilient at all. That’s not resilient against adversaries, that’s not even resilient against a power failure, perhaps.”

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January 31, 2023

• The Space Force and the Pentagon have put considerable effort into making proliferating satellite constellations to make them more resilient against attack, but the ground stations and networks that communicate with those satellites pose a “backdoor” risk through which adversaries could potentially attack space capability, said Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman.
• Speaking with reporters Jan. 31 at the Pentagon, Saltzman said vulnerabilities in ground systems highlight the extent to which space and cyber warfare are interconnected—a key lesson he’s drawn from the Russian-Ukraine war.
• “Satellites in space are not useful if the linkages to them and the ground network that moves the information around and communicates with the satellites is not assured, is not capable, is not accessible,” Saltzman said. “We’ve witnessed some cyber activity that has hurt satellite operations. … When we think about satellite operations, if we’re not thinking about cyber protection of our ground networks, then we may have a backdoor, if you will, to negate satellite operations without counter-satellite operations.”

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January 12, 2023

• Echoing points he made in previous public appearances, [Frank Calvelli, assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration] called for DoD to break from the past and embrace more agile ways to buy satellites in order to make U.S. systems more resilient to threats. Most space-based systems the U.S. military needs — for communications, space domain awareness, missile detection and tracking, navigation, weather and other applications — can be accomplished using small satellites, Calvelli said.

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January 19, 2023

• Swiss startup ClearSpace said Jan. 19 it has raised about $29 million to support its first space debris removal mission in 2026.
• Europe-focused early-stage investor OTB Ventures led the Series A financing round along with Swisscom Ventures, the investment arm of Switzerland-based telco Swisscom. The government-backed Luxembourg Future Fund (LFF) also participated in the round, and ClearSpace said it is establishing an operational presence in Luxembourg as a result. ClearSpace has now raised about 130 million euros ($140 million) from commercial and government sources to develop its capabilities, according to co-founder and CEO Luc Piguet.

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January 12, 2023

• Japan and the U.S. affirmed that Washington will extend its security umbrella to its treaty ally into space, a move that would seek to protect Japanese satellites as China and Russia ramp up military activity in the arena.

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December 13, 2022

• The United Nations General Assembly approved a resolution calling for a halt to one type of anti-satellite (ASAT) testing, a largely symbolic move intended to support broader space sustainability initiatives.

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December 9, 2022

• Part of a Chinese rocket that launched the Yunhai 3 satellite last month is now a debris cloud of around 350 pieces. The Long March 6A rocket launched from Taiyuan, north China, on Nov. 11, successfully inserting the Yunhai 3 environmental monitoring satellite into its intended orbit. The upper stage of the rocket, however, apparently suffered a breakup event shortly thereafter. On Nov. 12, the U.S. Space Force’s 18th Space Defense Squadron (18 SDS) reported(opens in new tab) that it was tracking at least 50 discrete pieces of orbital debris from the rocket body. Ongoing tracking from 18 SDS, which focuses on space domain awareness, now states that the debris cloud has grown to 350 objects associated with the rocket stage.

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November 3, 2022

• A key United Nations committee overwhelmingly approved a US resolution calling upon states to forgo testing of destructive, debris-creating anti-satellite missiles — with what a senior State Department official said was strong support from developing nations traditionally not allied politically with the West and often skeptical of US proposals.
• The vote at the UN First Committee, which is responsible for peace and security, was 154 in favor, eight against and 10 abstentions.

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October 27, 2022

• A Russian official speaking at a United Nations meeting on outer space security, criticized Western nations’ use of commercial satellites in military operations, adding fuel to previous declarations that Russia could target space networks operated by private companies. 
• Konstantin Vorontsov, deputy director of the Russian foreign ministry’s department for non-proliferation and arms, called the West’s use of commercial satellites “an extremely dangerous trend that … has become apparent during the latest developments in Ukraine.” He said that commercial systems as “quasi-civilian infrastructure may become a legitimate target for retaliation.”

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April 19, 2022

• The United States has become the first country to announce a ban on missile tests against space satellites. US Vice-President Kamala Harris, who chairs the National Space Council, said such tests were reckless.
• Speaking at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, Ms Harris said it was part of the Biden administration’s strategy to promote responsible use of space. She said stopping the direct ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile testing will safeguard satellites in low-Earth orbit – and she urged other nations to follow suit.

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March 17, 2022

• Chinese scientists have reportedly developed an ultra-high powered microwave device that can potentially jam satellite communications or damage sensitive satellite electronics. The device, known as the Relativistic Klystron Amplifier (RKA), is a high-power microwave (HPM) source that is widely used in high-power radars, new accelerators and new communication systems because of its advantages in high-power, high-efficiency, stable-phase and stable-amplitude of output power.

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