Anti-satellite weapon
Kinetic energy device designed to destroy satellites in orbit
Why this is trending
Interest in “Anti-satellite weapon” spiked on Wikipedia on 2026-02-24.
Categorised under Science & Nature, this article fits a familiar pattern. Science and technology topics tend to trend after breakthroughs, space missions, health announcements, or widely shared research findings.
GlyphSignal tracks these patterns daily, turning raw Wikipedia traffic data into a curated feed of what the world is curious about. Every spike tells a story.
Key Takeaways
- Anti-satellite weapons ( ASAT ) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic or tactical purposes.
- ASATs have also been used to remove decommissioned satellites.
- A cascading multiplication of space debris could cause Earth to suffer from Kessler syndrome.
- Since, other states have also developed or researched ASAT capabilities.
Anti-satellite weapons (ASAT) are space weapons designed to incapacitate or destroy satellites for strategic or tactical purposes. Although no ASAT system has yet been utilized in warfare, a few countries (China, India, Russia, and the United States) have successfully shot down their own satellites to demonstrate their ASAT capabilities in a show of force. ASATs have also been used to remove decommissioned satellites.
ASAT roles include: defensive measures against an adversary's space-based and nuclear weapons, a force multiplier for a nuclear first strike, a countermeasure against an adversary's anti-ballistic missile defense (ABM), an asymmetric counter to a technologically superior adversary, and a counter-value weapon.
Use of ASATs generates space debris, which can collide with other satellites and generate more space debris. A cascading multiplication of space debris could cause Earth to suffer from Kessler syndrome.
History
The first anti-satellite technologies were developed during the cold war, with the Soviet Istrebitel Sputnikov programme and the American SAINT. Since, other states have also developed or researched ASAT capabilities.
Content sourced from Wikipedia under CC BY-SA 4.0
