Russian Antisatellite Weapon Test May Have Littered Space With Dangerous Debris

A Russian antisatellite weapon test may have created a dangerous field of orbiting space debris that threatened the International Space Station over the weekend, unnamed U.S. officials told CNN.

In a statement, U.S. Space Command (which is different than Space Force) confirmed “a debris-generating event” occurred, but notably declined to mention the cause or Russia.

Two U.S. officials told CNN that Russia carried out an antisatellite test over the weekend, and one suggested a link to the debris. That scenario is bolstered by a report from Seradata, a private space data and analysis company that tracked a suspected ground-launched antisatellite missile strike from Russia.

The missile struck a defunct Soviet-era intelligence satellite that had been in orbit since 1982 and scattered at least 14 pieces of debris large enough to be tracked, according to Seradata. If confirmed, it would be Russia’s fourth such antisatellite test.