America is ending anti-satellite missile tests
No one wants Kessler syndrome. But will other countries follow suit?
“SIMPLY PUT, these tests are dangerous, and we will not conduct them.” So said Kamala Harris, America’s vice-president, in a speech on April 18th at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Ms Harris was announcing an American ban on full-fledged testing of “direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles”—ground-launched weapons designed to blow up satellites in orbit.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “Launch break”
From the April 23rd 2022 edition
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