Publications

That’s a wrap on this season of ESG in Space!

The COPUOS Briefing Book is a practical guide by Secure World Foundation to help newcomers understand and engage with the UN’s central forum for space diplomacy.

Secure World Foundation's April Newsletter

A practical guide to responsible, sustainable space activities for new actors.

Since 2010, Russia has been testing technologies for RPO in both LEO and GEO that could lead to or support a co-orbital ASAT capability, and some of those efforts have links to a Cold War-era LEO co-orbital ASAT program.

Over the last decade, India has shifted from a purely civil space program to one that includes military capabilities.

Since 2008, China has conducted multiple tests of satellite technologies for robotic rendezvous and proximity operations (RPO) to support surveillance and inspection of other space objects in both low Earth orbit (LEO) and geostationary Earth orbit (GEO), most of which are related to military or intelligence operations.

China has at least one, and possibly as many as three, programs underway to develop direct ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) capabilities, either as dedicated counterspace systems or as midcourse missile defense systems that could provide counterspace capabilities.

While the United States does not have an operational, acknowledged direct ascent anti-satellite (DA-ASAT) system, it does have operational midcourse missile defense interceptors that have been demonstrated in an ASAT role against a satellite in a very low orbit.

The United States has conducted one co-orbital intercept test in 1986 with the Delta 180 experiment as part of the Strategic Defense Initiative Organization.

The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle (OTV) is a technology demonstrator and experimental vehicle which is likely used for testing new reusable space launch vehicle technologies (such as guidance and thermal protection) and on-orbit testing of new sensor technologies and satellite hardware for risk reduction.

Over the past two decades, several countries have begun developing rendezvous and proximity (RPO) technologies for non-military purposes such as satellite inspection, refueling, repairs, on-orbit assembly, and debris removal.