Space warfare

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Space warfare is warfare that takes place in outer space. For the purposes of this article it will refer to battles where the targets themselves are in space. Space warfare therefore includes ground-to-space warfare, attacking satellites from the Earth, as well as space-to-space warfare, satellites attacking satellites. It does not include space-to-ground warfare, where satellites attack ground targets directly, or the indirect military use of satellites for espionage, surveillance, or communications.

1 History
2 Theoretical space weaponry
3 Practical considerations
4 References
5 See also
6 External links

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History

Early efforts to conduct space warfare were directed at space-to-space warfare, as ground-to-space systems were considered to be too slow and too isolated by Earth's atmosphere to be effective. The history of active space warfare development goes back to the 1960s when the Soviet Union began the Almaz project, a project designed to give them the ability to do on-orbit inspections of satellites and destroy them if needed. Similar planning in the United States took the form of the Blue Gemini project (comprised of modified Gemini capsules that would be able to deploy weapons and perform surveillance).

One early test of electronic space-to-space warfare took place in 1963 when the United States exploded a nuclear weapon in space to test the effects of EMP. The result was a deactivation of many then-orbiting satellites, both American and Soviet. The deleterious and unfocused effects of the EMP test led to the banning of nuclear weapons in space in the Outer Space Treaty of 1968.

Through the 1970s, the Soviet Union continued their project and even test fired a cannon to test space station defense.

Space warfare strongly influenced the final design of the US Space Shuttle. The distinctive delta wing shape was needed if the shuttle were to launch a military payload towards the Soviet Union and perform an immediate de-orbit after one rotation to avoid being shot down.

Both the Soviets and the US developed anti-satellite weaponry designed to shoot down satellites. While early efforts paralleled other space-to-space warfare concepts, the United States was able in the 1980s to develop ground-to-space laser anti-satellite weapons. None of these systems is known to be active today; however, a less powerful civilian version of the ground-to-space laser system is commonly used in the astronomical technique of adaptive optics.

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Theoretical space weaponry

In the late 1970s and through the 1980s the Soviet Union and the US theorised, designed and in some cases even tested an astonishing variety of bizarre and exotic weaponry designed for warfare in outer space. Space warfare was seen primarily as an extension of nuclear warfare, and thus theoretical systems were based around the destruction and/or defense of ground and sea-based missiles. Space-based missiles were not a target due to the Outer Space Treaty, which banned the use, testing of or storage of nuclear weapons outside the Earth's atmosphere. Systems proposed ranged from measures as simple as ground and space-based anti-missiles to railguns, space based lasers, orbital mines and other such futuristic weaponry. Deployment of these systems was seriously considered in the mid-1980's under the banner of the Strategic Defense Initiative. If the Cold War had continued, then many of these systems could have seen deployment: the US got as far as developing working railguns, and a laser that could destroy missiles at range (though the power requirements of both were phenomenal, and the ranges and firing cycles utterly impractical).

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Practical considerations

Space warfare might that involves humans being deployed in space to fight each other is not currently practical. No infrastructure or economic interests exist at the moment to warrant the occupation of terrain on other terrestrial bodies within the Solar system, or to occupy orbital trajectories in outer space. The difficulty and cost of sustaining human life in space, especially over long periods of time, may also be a factor: see human adaptation to space.

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