Russia rejects US accusations over firing space weapon

MOSCOW: Russia has dismissed accusations from the United States and Britain that it had tested an anti-satellite weapon in space.

The United States Space Command on Thursday accused Russia of test-firing an anti-satellite weapon in space and warned against “real, serious and increasing” threat against US systems.

The head of Britain’s Space Directorate, Air Vice-Marshal Harvey Smyth, also reacted and said that “actions of this kind threaten the peaceful use of space.”

The Russian foreign ministry insisted on its “commitment to obligations on the non-discriminatory use and study of space with peaceful aims.

“We call on our US and British colleagues to show professionalism and instead of some propagandistic information attacks, sit down for talks,” the ministry said in a statement. The US said that Russia conducted a “non-destructive test of a space-based anti-satellite weapon”.

US nuclear disarmament negotiator Marshall Billingslea called it unacceptable and said that it would be discussed next week in Vienna, where he is in talks on a successor to the New START treaty which caps the nuclear warheads of US and Russia.

The Russian foreign ministry said tests carried out by the country’s defence ministry on 15th July “did not create a threat for other space equipment and most importantly, did not breach any norms or principles of international law.”

It said the US and Britain “naturally keep silent about their own efforts”, claiming the countries had “programmes on the possible use of ‘inspector satellites’ and ‘repair satellites’ as counter-satellite weapons.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the accusationsaid Russia supports “full demilitarisation of space and not basing any type of weapons in space.”

The US Space Command said the test consisted of Russia’s satellite Cosmos 2543 injecting an object into orbit. Russian state media reported in December that a satellite called Cosmos-2542 ejected another smaller satellite once in space.

The system is the same that Space Command raised concerns about earlier this year, when it manoeuvred near a US government satellite, said General Jay Raymond, head of US Space Command.

It is the latest example of Russian satellites behaving in a manner “inconsistent with their stated mission,” the Space Command statement added.

“This event highlights Russia’s hypocritical advocacy of outer space arms control,” said Christopher Ford, a US assistant secretary of state for arms control.

The statement also came as China launched a rover to Mars on Thursday, a journey coinciding with a similar US mission as the powers take their rivalry into deep space.