Jan 23 2007
From The Space Library
The heads of space agencies from Canada, Europe, Japan, Russia, and the United States met at the ESA headquarters in Paris to review International Space Station (ISS) cooperation. The ISS partners discussed the significant accomplishments and milestones in implementing the ISS’s configuration and assembly sequence, as endorsed at the previous meeting of the partners in March 2006. Milestones for the ISS included reestablishing a three-person crew, reinitiating station-assembly activities, and completing three extremely challenging Space Shuttle missions, which included the extravehicular accomplishments of American, Canadian, European, and Russian astronauts.
NASA, “Heads of Agency International Space Station Joint Statement,” news release 07-013, 23 January 2007, http://www.nasa.gov/home/hqnews/2007/jan/HQ_07013_HOA_Joint_Statement.html (accessed 14 October 2009).
The People’s Republic of China ended its silence regarding a reported test of antisatellite technology, confirming that, on 11 January, China had fired a guided missile into space to destroy one of its own weather satellites. U.S. monitors had detected the test shot, and observers in the United States had protested, based on concerns that U.S. military satellites might be vulnerable to attack from China. China’s Foreign Ministry spokesperson Liu Jianchao stated that China had informed the United States and other governments about the classified test through diplomatic channels and had “emphasized that the use of anti-satellite technology” did not mean that China had “abandoned its opposition to the militarization of space.” The United States and Russia had tested antisatellite technology in the 1980s but had ceased those tests, partly because of concern that debris created during the tests could damage satellites in nearby orbits. Analysts stated that China’s test had created several hundred thousand debris fragments in a region containing as many as 125 satellites.
Edward Cody, “China Confirms Firing Missile To Destroy Satellite,” Washington Post, 24 January 2007; Jason Dean, “China Verifies Antisatellite-Missile Test,” Wall Street Journal, 24 January 2007.
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