Astronomers quite unequivocally define active maneuvers of spacecraft of Chinese origin in near-earth orbit as training tests to capture and disable potential enemy satellites. Including navigation devices such as GPS or GLONASS, as well as telecommunications satellites. The Chinese satellite Shiyan-7 (Shiyan-7) was seen in arbitrary maneuvering and approaching 2 other satellites in low-Earth orbit. The experimental satellites Shiyan-7 (Shiyan-7), Chuangxin-3 (Chuangsin-3) and Shijian-15 (Shijian-15) were launched into space by the Long March-4C rocket in July 2013.
According to the Xinhua news agency, the satellites were launched into orbit on July 19, 2013. The satellites are reported to be primarily intended for scientific maintenance experiments in space. Official Chinese sources did not reveal any other details, but experts almost immediately came up with the assumption that one of the tasks of the spacecraft launched into orbit would be to develop the technology for inspecting other spacecraft. Observing the further progress of the satellite flight program confirms this assumption.
Ground observers who monitored the flight of the Chinese satellites note that in August 2013, the Shiyan-7 satellite was maneuvered and approached Shijian-15. So on August 6, at about 16:45 UTC, the Chinese satellite passed at an altitude of about 3 km. over its "colleague", and on August 9 the same satellite passed several kilometers under it.
On August 16, an astronomer from the UK noticed that the Shiyan-7 satellite, which was supposed to simulate its docking with an orbital station, suddenly began to change its course. In the next 2 days, the Chinese satellite was actively maneuvering in orbit and approaching other spacecraft (SC) that were in close orbits. Today, the standard distance between similar spacecraft is about 120 km, while they do not change their course to approach any satellites at a distance of up to 100 m.
This behavior of the spacecraft allows us to say with a fair degree of confidence that the satellite is practicing training tests to capture and disable satellites of a potential enemy. According to some experts, the Shiyan-7 military spacecraft may be one of the newest elements of the global anti-satellite system being created in China.
Reports that China is developing its own weapons to combat space objects have appeared in the past. The first time the Chinese successfully tested the system, destroying their own satellite, back on January 11, 2007. Moreover, this was the first such test, which was carried out since the beginning of the 80s of the last century. At this time, similar tests were carried out by the USSR and the USA. However, the superpowers stopped such experiments, as they feared that the debris formed in their course could disrupt the work of civilian and military satellites. True, China's trials were not immediately successful. According to ITAR-TASS, three previous attempts by the PRC to shoot down a satellite with a missile ended in nothing.
In January 2007, the PRC successfully tested its own anti-satellite missile for the first time, which was able to hit an exhausted meteorological satellite located at an altitude of 865 km. The wreckage of this spacecraft in the amount of about 3 thousand units is still in low-earth orbit and poses a real threat to satellites and manned spacecraft. At the same time, there is every reason to believe that the 2007 tests were not the only ones when Beijing tested the corresponding technologies.
A number of countries, including the United States, reacted very painfully to these tests, showing their concern about what happened. According to experts, the main indignation was caused not by the wreckage of the destroyed meteorological satellite, which became space debris and could pose a danger to other space objects, but by the fact that the PRC has acquired its own weapons capable of hitting satellites. The thing is that most of the American spy satellites fly exactly in the orbit in which China destroyed its satellite. GPS satellites, the data from which are used in the so-called "smart bombs", as well as in intelligence and troops, communications satellites are now within range of Beijing missiles.
The second test of the SC-19 missile (the designation common in the west, created on the basis of the KT-2 ballistic missile) took place in January 2010. This time, China explained the launch by a test of a ground-based anti-missile defense (ABM) system. In 2010, the intercept occurred in a much lower orbit (compared to 2007), at approximately 250 km. The target of the launched missile was an ICBM warhead, not just another satellite. However, it should be noted that both the missile defense interceptor missile and the anti-satellite interceptor missile operate in the supra-atmospheric space, that is, according to international standards, at altitudes of more than 100 km. above sea level. In addition, from a technical point of view, there is no particular difference in the structure of such missiles.
The last launch of an anti-satellite missile, according to the United States, China carried out in May 2013. On May 13, 2013, a rocket was launched from the Xichang Cosmodrome in Sichuan Province, which is essentially an interceptor missile designed to destroy satellites. This was reported by an unnamed representative of the US military circles to the Reuters news agency. At the same time, the Chinese authorities described the launch from the Xichang cosmodrome as scientific. According to them, it has no military orientation. The Chinese government announced that the rocket was launched into space in order to study the planet's magnetic field, as well as its interaction with streams of charged particles of cosmic origin.
According to US spies, China launched a Dong Ning-2 ASAT missile, which Hong Li, who is China's foreign minister, denied. Currently, the United States suspects China of conducting systematic tests of anti-space weapons. China has reportedly carried out a number of tests in this area in recent years. One way or another, the most serious of the tests carried out so far belong to 2007.
Information leaked to the Internet is an indirect confirmation of China's programs to create new weapons systems focused on space. In the archives of the US State Department's foreign correspondence, which were made publicly available thanks to the Wikileaks website, there is information about the Chinese anti-satellite tests. According to leaked data, the PRC arranged test launches of its anti-satellite interceptor missiles back in 2004 and 2005. In addition, in their report to the US Congress in 2012, representatives of the American command note that over the past 2 years, the work of Chinese satellites in low-earth orbits has been built on more and more complex flight patterns, for which no official explanation has been provided.
