Is China's satellite counter-surveillance a threat to the United States? Aerospace experts: Thieves shout to catch thieves, and the number of us close surveillance of Chinese satellites ranks first among all countries

Source: Global Times - Global Network

[Global Times-Global Network Report Reporter Fan Wei] The famous U.S. defense news network magazine "Defense Express" recently reported that a video obtained by the magazine that has never been made public before shows that China has demonstrated the ability to track and manipulate satellites with extremely high precision, which makes the Chinese military only take more than a day to find the AMERICAN satellites that are slowly approaching the Chinese satellites, and quickly implement orbit change maneuvers away from the US satellites. This flexible and high-precision spatial perception and manipulation capability displayed by China has the potential to be used for "evil or threatening things." A Chinese aerospace expert who did not want to be named said in an interview with the Global Times reporter that in fact, in order to ensure its dominant position in space, the United States has long laid out and established a satellite surveillance system that combines heaven and earth to monitor the dynamics of satellites of other countries in real time. Data show that the US space surveillance satellites show extremely high attention to China's geosynchronous orbit satellites, and the number of close surveillance is ranked first among all countries, posing a great threat to China's space security.

The October 28 report by the U.S. Defense Letter details a U.S.-China space encounter that allegedly occurred in July 2021. A space surveillance satellite code-named "America 271", jointly developed by the U.S. Air Force and the American Orbital Science Corporation, is trying to approach China's heaviest and most advanced satellite to date, the Shiji-20 satellite. The satellite "flew" in parallel with the Practice-20 satellite, but then the Chinese side clearly discovered the "American 271" satellite and quickly removed the Practice-20 satellite. The U.S. 271 satellite, which attempts to reach surveillance Practice-20 satellites, is part of the U.S. Geosynchronous Orbit Space SituationAl awareness program (GSSAP).

According to previous public reports, the Shijian-20 satellite is the highest-orbit satellite with the heaviest launch weight and the highest technical content developed by China, and the first test star of the Dongfanghong 5 satellite public platform, a new generation of large-scale geostationary orbit satellite platform independently developed by China. The Shijian-20 satellite has the largest and most complex solar wing in China, with wings 10 meters wider than the wingspan of a Boeing 737 aircraft. Satellites carry a number of high-throughput communication payloads, which can achieve exponential growth in the capacity of satellite-to-ground communications. In addition, the satellite uses a hybrid propulsion system, which is powered by chemical propulsion and electric propulsion. The chemical propulsion system uses the latest products and technologies such as plate storage tanks to ensure that not a single drop of propellant is wasted.

The "Geosynchronous Orbit Space Situational Awareness Program (GSSAP)" responsible for monitoring China's practice-20 satellites in US media reports can be described as a "habitual offender" who creates space threats. A Chinese aerospace expert, who did not want to be named, told the Global Times reporter that the GSSAP series of satellites was developed by the American orbital ATK company, and the number of planned satellites reached 6. The GSSAP series of satellites, first launched in 2014, has 4 satellites launched into orbit to monitor the altitude of geosynchronous orbit and its vicinity of resident space targets, and the photoelectric sensors carried by the satellites are dedicated to space surveillance and collect intelligence on specific target satellites or objects.

The above-mentioned space experts said that russian space monitoring data shows that since 2014, the GSSAP series of satellites have made hundreds of maneuvers and made close contact with more than a dozen satellites in operation in geostationary orbit. In 2016, the GSSAP system satellite was close to China's communications technology test satellite, and in 2017 it was close to the PakSat-1R communication satellite jointly developed by China and Pakistan and the Nigcomsat-1R communication satellite launched by China for Nigeria. It poses a great threat to the spacecraft of China and many other countries.

However, in the report of the US "Defense Express", it quoted the view of the project leader of a US space technology company that provides space tracking and other related information services, and said that "China's space mobility capabilities have posed a threat to the United States."

The space situational awareness expert named Jim Cooper "revealed" to Defense Letters that monitoring data shows that China's communications technology test-3 satellite launched in 2018 flew in parallel with the upper stage of the Long March 3C carrier rocket that launched the satellite, which Jim Cooper believes is a tactical, technical and procedural development, testing and verification, "because if a country is monitoring Chinese satellites, You will see that the upper stage of the abandoned rocket is located in the position of the previous satellite, which may mislead the upper stage of the rocket for a satellite. Satellites can leave the original area with a very large orbit change maneuver and gain a few days of 'freedom', during which time Chinese satellites may do something potentially threatening, while the United States does not know where China's satellites are. Jim Cooper said.

China is not the only country in a position to do so. Both Russia and the United States have demonstrated this capability several times before. And when a satellite has the ability to maneuver precisely, there will be a variety of application scenarios.

Jim Cooper said that there are some beneficial applications of this technology in space today, such as satellite in-orbit services, satellite fuel replenishment in orbit, and disposal of end-of-life satellites, all of which require satellites to be highly close and in some cases even need to be docked in orbit... But this technique can also be used for "evil or threatening things." It is therefore necessary to find out what the real purpose of this operation is, which is what the US Space Force and Space Command are concerned about.

Regarding the US media's argument of "thieves shouting to catch thieves," the above-mentioned aerospace experts, who did not want to be named, said that through public data, the analysis of the countries belonging to the satellites that have been approached by the US side can be seen that in addition to the arrival of satellites in the United States, the GSSAP series of satellites in the United States has shown a strong "interest" in China's geostationary orbit satellites, and the number of US satellites approaching Chinese satellites accounts for about 19% of the total number of US satellites arriving at all countries' satellites, and even higher than Russia. In order to ensure its own space advantages, the United States has created the ability to integrate heaven and earth and monitor satellites of other countries in real time, which really poses a huge threat to space security.

Aerospace expert Huang Zhicheng said that the United States first militarized in space and is now stepping up its weaponization. The United States has long been committed to studying how to jam each other's satellites and capture each other's satellites as early as the early 20th century. The U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) has a series of related programs, such as the Rail Express and the Phoenix Program, which intend to deploy such weapons in space. Therefore, the US media's active defense and active evasion of China's satellites to attack is a kind of vicious trick of "thieves shouting to catch thieves", which should be condemned by peace-loving people all over the world. In this regard, we have always adhered to the concept of a community with a shared future for mankind, built an environment for the peaceful use of space by all mankind, and hoped that the United States can promote arms control in the field of space, strengthen traffic governance in space, and give all mankind a peaceful, prosperous and smooth space environment. ”