US officials have commented on a Russian satellite orbiting Earth.
As if we didn't have enough to worry about in terms of meteorites coming from the stars to wipe out the planet, or impending alien invasions, there are now fears that space-based weapons are floating above our heads. With Baba Vanga AND Nostradamus both predicting some sort of massive conflict in 2025, could theories that Russia is hiding covert weapons in space be what sparks this all-out war?
Space is scary enough as it is, but now, the New York Times suggests that Vladimir Putin could be testing space weapons with his Cosmos 2553 satellite. Just days before Russia's war with Ukraine kicked off, the Cosmos 2553 was launched from Russia's Plesetsk Cosmodrome atop a Soyuz-2 rocket. The U.S. Space Command headquarters were alerted to the Cosmos 2553 on February 5, 2022, namely because of its unusual trajectory and the fact it was heading to a remote 'graveyard orbit' region of space.
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Hovering some 2,000 kilometers above the Earth, this area inside the Van Allen Belts is blasted with radiation and only contains 10 other satellites. Weirdly, all of these apart from the Cosmos 2553 have been dead for years.
So, why is the Cosmos 2553 in a lonely orbit that circles the planet every two hours?
Moscow claims the satellite is there to test "newly developed onboard instruments and systems" against radiation, but U.S. officials speculate it's experimenting with components for a secret weapon that could wipe out thousands of critical satellites elsewhere in the cosmos.
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It's important to note that while the NYT says the Cosmos 2553 isn’t armed, it apparently carries a dummy warhead. With this pitched as a 'forerunner to an unprecedented weapon', there are obvious worries about what it could lead to.
Even if we don't think about it, satellites control a lot of our day-to-day lives, with everything from stocks to navigation systems being dictated by them. As more have been launched in the past five years than the previous 60, something that could wipe out satellites is effectively an orbiting weapon of mass destruction.
If legitimate, it's thought a co-orbital anti-satellite weapon (ASAT) would be launched into orbit, circle the Earth, and then deploy a nuclear device that would fry nearby satellites. More than just being a danger in space, detonating too close to the Earth would also cause havoc for our electrical infrastructure on the surface.
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The so-called 'Sput-nuke' has the potential to disrupt military space operations and hundreds of millions of people all over the world.
It's not just Russia taking its arms race higher than ever, with countries including China and the USA all developing 'dozens' of space weapons. The three nations have been testing high-flying missiles that can target satellites and other space systems while boasting lasers and signal jammers.
As a final thought to keep you up at night, there are only two major pacts that oversee nuclear weapons in space, with both the Limited Test Ban Treaty (1963) and the Outer Space Treaty (1967) not looking like they can stand up to much in today's shaky political climate.
Russia might be the one to watch for now, but as the NYT warns: "Any nation with ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, like North Korea, holds the potential to reverse the progress of the space age with a single detonation."