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Questions tagged [weapon]

For questions related to weapons, which may exist in the context of crew survival kits, speculative military astronauts, or military weapons systems in space such as missiles.

5 votes
2 answers
909 views

Weaponizing the Starlink constellation

Starlink aims at having tens of thousands of satellites in orbit in a few years. At any given point in time there will be a large number of satellites close by any inhabited places, including the ...
Peter - Reinstate Monica's user avatar
4 votes
1 answer
460 views

What was the flight path of China's hypersonic missile that circumnavigated sometime in summer 2021?

I read on CNN: China's test of a hypersonic missile over the summer [2021] "went around the world," the second most senior US general said in an interview released Tuesday, shedding new ...
Franck Dernoncourt's user avatar
1 vote
1 answer
676 views

Have "space lasers" really been used to temporarily blind US satellites?

In CNN's video An exclusive look into how Space Force is defending America they talk with Gen. John W. Raymond, Chief of Space Operations, US Space Force. After about ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
4 votes
1 answer
306 views

Has a spacecraft ever actually sprayed a chemical (or anything) on to another spacecraft intentionally for any reason at all?

The question How many of these six military "orbital threat" techniques have been demonstrated in a (more or less) publicly recognized way? begins: If you are having a good day then under ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
11 votes
2 answers
464 views

How many of these six military "orbital threat" techniques have been demonstrated in a (more or less) publicly recognized way?

If you are having a good day then under no circumstances should you read the US Defense Intelligence Agency's Challenges to Security in Space1 (Information cutoff date, January 2019) linked in Axios' ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
5 votes
2 answers
179 views

Has anyone suggested using an electrically powered sling or centrifuge mass thrower as a form of electrically powered spacecraft propulsion?

Has anyone suggested using an electrically powered sling as a form of electric propulsion for a space craft? It might be a centrifuge type arrangement with a way to release part of or all of the ...
Matthew Christopher Bartsh's user avatar
0 votes
2 answers
654 views

Using a sling whirled around above the head, could someone on the moon throw a stone into orbit?

Similar to this question except not about using a machine: What payloads and launch speeds could a sling launcher get using modern materials on the Moon? How fast could a stone be thrown using a sling ...
Matthew Christopher Bartsh's user avatar
8 votes
2 answers
525 views

Has a rocket from a torpedo tube ever reached space?

Are submarine launches horizontal? is a general question and specifies by name two large ICBMs which are likely to need to be launched vertically. Since the large naval submarines usually come ready-...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
36 votes
3 answers
12k views

Why were the SpaceX Crew-1 astronauts backed up by guards with automatic weapons?

The photo in NPR's 4 Astronauts Aboard SpaceX Crew Dragon Successfully Dock With Space Station shows the four astronauts standing in front of a serious-looking military vehicle flanked by at least two ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
3 votes
1 answer
543 views

Did Project Horizon draft any proposals for small arms weapons for astronauts?

The 1959 Project Horizon discusses building a base on the Moon, and also, according to the Wikipedia article, mentions weapons to be used for (of course) fighting the Soviets attacking the Moon base, ...
AlphaCentauri's user avatar
5 votes
0 answers
306 views

Why will Russia start arming cosmonauts again?

The Phys.org article Russia to give cosmonauts guns to fend off animals on landing says: Cosmonauts have been unarmed for more than a decade but Roscosmos agency head Dmitry Rogozin said it was time ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
3 votes
1 answer
171 views

Have nuclear explosions in space produced any debris that was subsequently tracked, or did all of them completely self-vaporize?

This answer to Where in the solar system could a nuke be tested without anybody noticing? has got me wondering if nuclear explosions (nuclear tests) in space above Earth ever produced any chunks of ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
7 votes
1 answer
877 views

Why was Bluegill Prime range-safetied on the launchpad?

Bluegill Prime1 was a planned launch of a nuclear weapon into space on a suborbital Thor missile and its (the nuke’s) ensuing detonation in space as part of Operation Fishbowl (a series of U.S. ...
Vikki's user avatar
  • 4,157
5 votes
2 answers
515 views

What did India's recently tested ASAT vehicle really look like?

Following up to India just shot down a satellite from the ground. At what altitude range is the resulting debris field? which shows the first image below (also seen in video) I also found the second ...
uhoh's user avatar
  • 149k
33 votes
5 answers
9k views

India just shot down a satellite from the ground. At what altitude range is the resulting debris field?

This tweet from India's prime minister Narendra Modi says: मेरे प्यारे देशवासियों, आज सवेरे लगभग 11.45 - 12.00 बजे मैं ��क महत्वपूर्ण संदेश लेकर आप के बीच आऊँगा। I would be addressing the nation at ...
uhoh's user avatar
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