Space Security Index

Table 8.2: History of ground-based anti-satellite demonstrations
System Actor Dates No. of
Intercepts
Bold Orion air-launched
ballistic missile
SAtellite INTerceptor (SAINT) US
(USAF)
Program 505 US
(US Army)
Program 437 US
(USAF)
Description of program
US 1959, single test 0 Air-launched ballistic missile passed within
32 km of US Explorer VI satellite
1960-1962
Idea abandoned in
the late 1960s
Co-orbital (IS) ASAT USSR 1963-1972,
1976-1982
Polaris submarine launched
ASAT
US
(US Navy)
0 Designed as a co-orbital surveillance system,
the satellite could be armed with a warhead
or ‘blind’ the enemy satellite with paint
1962-1964 1? Nike-Zeus nuclear-tipped anti-ballistic missile
system employed as an ASAT against orbital
vehicles
1963-1975 1? Nuclear-armed Thor ballistic missile launched
directly into the path of the target
12? Conventional explosives launched into orbit
near target, detonated when within range of
one km
1964-late 1960s ? Submarine-launched ballistic missile fitted
with tracking sensors and launched into orbit
as satellite passed overhead to detonate a
warhead filled with steel pellets
Laser ASAT USSR 1975-1989 0 Sary Shagan and Dushanbe laser sites reported
to have ASAT programs
Air-Launched Miniature
Vehicle
US
(USAF)
1982-1987 1 Missile launched from high-orbit F-15 aircraft
to destroy satellite with a high-speed collision
MiG-31 Air-launched ASAT USSR 1980-1985 ? Exploration of kinetic-kill ASAT to be launched
from MiG-31 aircraft, never tested
MIRACL Laser US
(USAF)
Ground-Based Kinetic Energy
ASAT
* Medium-range ballistic
missile-based kinetic energy
ASAT
† Modified Standard Missile-3
launched from the Aegis
Ballistic Missile Defense
System (not a dedicated
anti-satellite program)
US
(US Army)
China
(PLA)
US
(US Navy)
1989-1990 Tested
in 1997 though not
acknowledged as
an ASAT test
1 Megawatt-class chemical laser fired at satellite
to disable electronic sensors
1990-2004 0 Kinetic-kill vehicle launched from the ground
to intercept and destroy a satellite
2007 1 Destroyed the Feng Yun 1C weather satellite on
11 January 2007
2008 1 Single engagement of the failed, de-orbiting
US-193 satellite that resulted in the kinetic
intercept and consequent destruction of the
satellite on 20 February 2008
* The Chinese government states that the intercept of the Feng Yun 1C satellite was a scientific experiment and not an antisatellite
test or demonstration.
† The US government states that the engagement of the US-193 satellite was done to protect populations on Earth, and that the
modification of the system was a one-time occurrence that has been reversed.
A leaked cable dated 12 January, which also references the Chinese ASAT test of January
2007, says that “the U.S. Intelligence Community assesses that on 11 January 2010 China
launched an SC-19 missile from the Korla Missile Test Complex and successfully intercepted
a near-simultaneously launched CSS-X-11 medium-range ballistic missile launched from the
Shuangchengzi Space and Missile Center.” e cable adds that the intercept, which occurred
at an altitude of approximately 250 km, “is assessed to have furthered both Chinese ASAT
and ballistic missile defense (BMD) technologies. Due to the sensitivity of the intelligence
that would have to be disclosed to substantiate the U.S. assessment, the U.S. Government in
its demarche to the PRC Government will not associate the January 2010 SC-19 intercept
Space Systems Negation
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