The state corporation Roscosmos is concerned that the United States and NATO are launching potential weapons carriers into space.
Due to possible militarization, Russia should have its own anti-satellite weapons, the corporation’s CEO Dmitry Rogozin said on November 20.
On November 16, Russian Defense Minister Shoigu announced that a new anti-satellite system hit an old inactive satellite in Tselina-D orbit. In response, on November 17, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin condemned the testing of anti-satellite weapons as they undermine strategic stability in the world.
Roscosmos, according to Rogozin, is monitoring the fragments of the Tselina-D satellite, and they do not pose any threat to the International Space Station.
On November 25, the Russian Aerospace Forces launched the Soyuz-2.1B launch vehicle with a spacecraft in the interests of the Russian Ministry of Defense from the Plesetsk cosmodrome, the press service of the Russian Ministry of Defense reported.
The draft Treaty on the Prevention of the Placement of Weapons in Outer Space was developed back in 2008 at the Conference on Disarmament; it was jointly presented by China and Russia. But the 1967 Outer Space Treaty remains the main legal document. A new treaty to prevent the placement of weapons in outer space should be equal to the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons and the Chemical and Biological Weapons Convention.