On 11 January 2007, China conducted an anti-satellite missile test. A Chinese weather satellite—the FY-1Cpolar orbit satellite of the Fengyun series, at an altitude of, with a mass of 750 kg—was destroyed by a kinetic kill vehicle traveling with a speed of 8 km/s in the opposite direction. It was launched with a multistage solid-fuel missile from Xichang Satellite Launch Center or nearby. Aviation Week & Space Technology magazine first reported the test on 17 January 2007. The report was confirmed on 18 January 2007 by a United States National Security Council spokesperson. At first the Chinese government did not publicly confirm whether or not the test had occurred; but on 23 January 2007, the Chinese Foreign Ministry officially confirmed that a test had been conducted. China claims it formally notified the U.S., Japan and other countries about the test in advance. It was the first known successful satellite intercept test since 1985, when the United States conducted a similar anti-satellite missile test using an ASM-135 ASAT to destroy the P78-1 satellite. The New York Times, The Washington Times and Jane's Intelligence Review reported that this came on the back of at least two previous direct ascent tests that intentionally did not result in an intercept, on 7 July 2005 and 6 February 2006. A classified U.S. State Department cable revealed by WikiLeaks indicates that the same system was tested against a ballistic target in January 2010 in what the Chinese government publicly described as a test of "ground-based midcourse missile interception technology". That description also closely matches the Chinese government's description of another test in January 2013, which has led some analysts to conclude that it was yet another test of the same ASAT system, again against a ballistic target and not a satellite.
Background
In January 2001, a U.S. congressionally mandated space commission headed by Donald Rumsfeld recommended that "the U.S. government should vigorously pursue the capabilities called for in the National Space Policy to ensure that the president will have the option to deploy weapons in space to deter threats to, and, if necessary, defend against attacks on U.S. interests." Moreover, the U.S. withdrawal from the Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty in 2002 had allowed the United States to pursue missile defenses, including those that were space-based. In response to the actions by the U.S. towards space weaponization, the Chinese started a space defense program that included anti-satellite defense.
Several nations responded negatively to the test and highlighted the serious consequences of engaging in the militarisation of space. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao stated, "There's no need to feel threatened about this" and argued that "China will not participate in any kind of arms race in outer space." China had publicly been advocating to ban space weapons, which had been rejected by the United States under George W. Bush. The United States had not tested an anti-satellite weapon since 1985. In February 2008 the US launched its own strike to destroy a non-functioning US satellite, which demonstrated the capability to strike in space, though at a much lower altitude than the Chinese test. The US claimed that the strike was not a military test but a necessary mission to remove the threat posed by the decaying orbit of a faulty spy satellite with a full tank of hydrazine fuel.
Space debris tracking
Anti-satellite missile tests, especially ones involving kinetic kill vehicles as in this case, contribute to the formation of orbital space debris which can remain in orbit for many years and could interfere with future space activity. This event was the largest recorded creation of space debris in history with more than 2,000 pieces of trackable size officially catalogued in the immediate aftermath, and an estimated 150,000 debris particles., a total of 3,438 pieces of debris had been detected, with 571 decayed and 2,867 still in orbit nine years after the incident. More than half of the tracked debris orbits the Earth with a mean altitude above, so they would likely remain in orbit for decades or centuries. Based on 2009 and 2013 calculations of solar flux, the NASA Orbital Debris Program Office estimated that around 30% of the larger-than- debris would still be in orbit in 2035. In April 2011, debris from the Chinese test passed 6 km away from the International Space Station. As of April 2019, 3000 of the 10,000 pieces of space debris routinely tracked by the US Military as a threat to the International Space Station were known to have originated from the 2007 satellite shoot down.
– Defence MinisterSergei Ivanov, stated that he considers reports on the Chinese anti-satellite missile test "exaggerated and abstract", reminding at the same time, that Russia always was against the militarisation of space.
– A spokesman for the Prime Minister Tony Blair told reporters that British officials had raised the matter with China. "We are concerned about the impact of debris in space and we expressed that concern," he said. However he also said that "We don't believe that this does contravene international law".
– National Security Council spokesman Gordon Johndroe, who confirmed that the test had occurred, stated that the United States "believes China's development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of cooperation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area."
Unofficial or indirectly related responses
Desmond Ball of the Australian National University while commenting on China's anti-satellite test of January 2007 said: “China's ASAT test of 11 January involved a fairly primitive system, limited to high-inclination LEO satellites. It is the sort of capability available to any country with a store of MRBMs/IRBMs or satellite launch vehicles, and a long-range radar system, such as Japan, India, Iran and even North Korea. However, its LEO coverage does include some extremely valuable satellites, including imaging and ELINT satellites, and the test is likely to generate reactions in several countries.”
