American and Russian officials recently held a 13-hour “space security exchange”, their first such talks in seven years
KOSMOS 2542, a Russian satellite lofted into space atop a Soyuz rocket on November 25th last year, was “like Russian nesting dolls”, remarked General John Raymond, commander of America’s space force, in February. Eleven days after its launch it disgorged another satellite, labelled Kosmos 2543. General Raymond’s analogy was more apt than he imagined. On July 15th, as it swung high over northern Europe, Kosmos 2543 itself spat out another object, which sped away at over 140 metres per second.
That competition faded in the 1990s, but as satellites became vital to civilian life and military operations, providing everything from routine navigation services to battlefield telemedicine, they became juicier targets. China has conducted ten tests over the past 15 years, including a spectacular kinetic one in 2007 that created a huge cloud of space debris, prompting America to mount its own demonstration the next year. India conducted its first kinetic test in 2019.
The Outer Space Treaty of 1967 bans weapons, bases and “military manoeuvres” on the moon , and nukes in orbit, but not much else. Russia and China have long sought a new treaty that would ban all weapons in space. Both countries see it as an opportunity to prevent America from deploying space-based anti-missile systems which might threaten their own nuclear forces. America and its allies pooh-pooh this idea.
On July 27th American and Russian officials held a 13-hour “space security exchange” in Vienna, their first such talks in seven years. Both sides agreed to continue talks “to reduce the risks of misunderstanding, help prevent or manage space-related incidents, and prevent inadvertent escalation”, according to the State Department.
An equivalent effort for space is now under way. The Manual on International Law Applicable to Military Uses of Outer Space is spearheaded by McGill University, in Montreal, and a separate Woomera Manual by the University of Adelaide. Both hope to publish their respective documents next year. Even when a satellite’s national affiliation and role are clear-cut, defining an attack and judging its legality is far from clear-cut. Michael Schmitt, a law scholar, and Kieran Tinkler, a British air force officer who is currently a professor at the US Naval War College, point out that it is unclear whether jamming a civilian satellite’s communication links would violate the prohibition on attacking civilian objects.
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