US Hits Spy Satellite

Wednesday Evening, the US Navy was on target to destroy the aging spy satellite that was falling towards the Earth.

China sees it as the beginning of a space arms race. I would argue there are a lot of differences between the US destruction of its satellite and Chinas hit on an old weather satellite January 2007.

First, the US told everyone what was going to happen. There were even web sites given the time of the launch. China just fired the missile and waited for the chips to fall. Second, and most important, while China's satellite was old, it was in a stable orbit and posed no danger to anyone. This leads this reporter to believe that the main focus of China's launch was to test their ASAT capability, not to destroy the satellite. The US has had ASAT capability for a long time. This was, simply, a way to make sure no one was harmed by a satellite, hurdling towards the Earth.