"It's not lost on this audience what a strategically dislocating event that was -- on a par with the October 1957 Sputnik launch" that put the old Soviet Union ahead of the United States in space, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley told a space industry conference.

On Jan. 11, a Chinese ground-launched missile shattered in low polar orbit its target, an obsolete Feng-Yun 1C weather satellite. Moseley said the missile was fired from a mobile launcher.

"That successful capability now puts the majority of our low-Earth orbit satellites at some risk, including the ones that are extremely, extremely important to us in our national security," he said.

Referring to the "now-contested" space environment, Moseley said space-based U.S. systems "have to stay combat-focused."

He described the threat to spacecraft from the more than 1,600 pieces of orbiting debris created by China in starker terms than previously used by U.S. officials.

The additional debris "makes space astronomically more dangerous than it was on the eve of the 10th of January for both military and civilian payloads," Moseley said.

The U.S. Air Force Space Command, in written replies to queries from Reuters, said Tuesday only three pieces of the debris created in January had reentered the atmosphere, with most of the rest expected to remain in orbit for decades.

"The Chinese ASAT test has certainly increased the collision risk to all of the roughly 700 active spacecraft with (orbital low ends) below approximately 4,000 kms," or 6400 miles, Masao Doi, a command spokesman, said in an email.

Such orbits are home to satellites used for a range of military and commercial communications, environmental monitoring and weather predicting, as well as the International Space Station.

China's demonstration of its capabilities was the first of its kind since the United States and Soviet Union halted anti-satellite tests 20 years ago, concerned about satellite-threatening debris.

By: DocMemory
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