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  • - [Narrator] Alarm and confusion have gripped Washington.

  • - The US has new intelligence.

  • - Of a quote "Serious national security threat."

  • - Nukes in space, really?

  • - [Narrator] New intelligence suggests that Russia

  • may be developing nuclear weapons to be used in space.

  • Although details of the classified intelligence are slim,

  • space policy experts said that,

  • "The technology could be used

  • against American satellites,

  • raising questions about Russia's intentions

  • and the potential ramifications of an orbital damnation."

  • - I think this is a wake-up call.

  • What Russia is doing is unprecedented,

  • extremely dangerous, and destabilizing.

  • - [Narrator] The disclosure of the intelligence

  • was first made public

  • by Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee,

  • Mike Turner.

  • On February 14th,

  • Turner issued a cryptic statement

  • about an unspecified, "Serious national security threat,

  • and called on the Biden administration

  • to declassify the information."

  • The White House wouldn't say if the new Russian system

  • had a nuclear component,

  • but it did confirm that Russia's pursuing

  • what it called an Antisatellite capability.

  • - This is not an active capability that's been deployed,

  • and though Russia's pursuit

  • of this particular capability is troubling,

  • there is no immediate threat to anyone's safety.

  • - [Narrator] Russian President Vladimir Putin

  • denied the US allegations

  • that Moscow plans to deploy nuclear weapons in space.

  • (speaking in Russian)

  • - [Narrator] The Russian development of nuclear weapons

  • for use in space,

  • would violate the 1967 Outer Space Treaty.

  • - There is a clause in the Outer Space Treaty

  • that prohibits the placement of nuclear weapons

  • or other weapons of mass destruction into orbit.

  • - [Narrator] Prior to signing the Outer Space Treaty,

  • both the US and the Soviet Union

  • conducted high-altitude nuclear tests in space.

  • - [Announcer] On Johnston Island,

  • missile preparation for the July launch

  • of the Starfish Prime Shot.

  • - [Narrator] Perhaps the best-known of these tests

  • was Starfish Prime,

  • the highest-altitude nuclear test in history.

  • - [Announcer] The Missile lifted off

  • and began its long programmed trajectory.

  • - [Narrator] To learn what effect a nuclear detonation

  • in space would have on satellites,

  • in 1962, the US launched a 1.4 megaton nuke

  • from Johnston Island in Atoll in the South Pacific.

  • The missile traveled 250 miles above the Earth's surface,

  • which is about as high

  • as where the International Space Station orbits today,

  • then it detonated,

  • - It created two phenomena.

  • One is the energy from the nuclear detonation

  • as it transmitted down through the Earth's atmosphere,

  • it converted to an electromagnetic pulse,

  • so basically, an electric surge of energy

  • that ended up frying components on land,

  • power grids, electrical devices,

  • caused communications blackouts for hundreds of miles.

  • - [Narrator] The missile was launched

  • about 700 nautical miles from Hawaii,

  • but effects from the tests

  • were seen around the equator.

  • - [Announcer] Here, in still pictures,

  • are two profile views of the Starfish Prime Aurora,

  • as seen from the Hawaiian Islands 700 miles away.

  • - So when you see a solar flare,

  • energy from the Sun heads towards the Earth,

  • it hits the Earth's magnetic fields,

  • that energy dissipates,

  • and that's what creates the aurora borealis.

  • A nuclear detonation in space

  • also creates that high-energy radiation like the Sun.

  • - [Narrator] The radiation

  • from the Starfish Prime detonation

  • eventually dissipated, but only after years.

  • - It also created radiation

  • that was trapped within the magnetic fields of Earth.

  • So any satellites

  • that were orbiting the Earth at that point in time,

  • again, very few in 1962,

  • but any satellites that were orbiting the Earth,

  • accumulated a higher radiation dose,

  • and their electronics basically got fried over time.

  • - [Narrator] The Starfish Prime test,

  • revealed that a high-altitude nuclear detonation

  • is particularly effective and indiscriminate.

  • Not only were nearby satellites destroyed,

  • satellites on the other side of the Earth,

  • were damaged and rendered inoperable.

  • According to a 2010 Defense Threat Reduction Agency Report,

  • "Starfish Prime damaged or destroyed

  • roughly one-third of all satellites

  • in low Earth orbit at the time."

  • In recent years,

  • the space domain has emerged as another battlefield.

  • - One of the first shots that Russia took

  • as it was invading Ukraine, it was a space shot.

  • Russia launched a cyber attack against a satellite network

  • to prevent Ukrainian forces

  • from being able to communicate with each other.

  • - [Narrator] According to Bingen,

  • "There is no satellite in orbit today

  • that is out of reach of Russian missiles."

  • - So if I think about

  • a direct accent Antisatellite missile,

  • so a missile designed to target a satellite,

  • that's largely, I'll say a one versus one weapon system,

  • it's one missile targeting one satellite.

  • A nuclear detonation in space,

  • I see as a one versus many weapon.

  • If your aim is to target

  • and take out as many satellites as you can,

  • you might seek this nuclear option

  • to create a large detonation

  • that fries any satellites within range,

  • and then creates a high-radiation environment

  • that degrades even more satellites over time.

  • - [Narrator] Bingen says, "It would be very difficult

  • to defend American satellites

  • against a nuclear explosion in space."

  • - There are some satellites

  • that the US government builds,

  • that have been designed to withstand nuclear attacks.

  • Those are our nuclear command and control systems

  • and our missile warning systems.

  • But those are large, exquisite, expensive systems.

  • When you think about

  • all of the satellites in orbit today,

  • over 90% of them are commercial.

  • Those commercial companies

  • are unlikely to invest

  • in radiation hardening their satellites.

  • - [Narrator] To address the growing threats from space,

  • in 2019, the US created a new service branch,

  • the Space Force.

  • - Now, those who wish to harm the United States

  • to seek to challenge us

  • in the ultimate high ground of space,

  • it's gonna be a whole different ballgame.

  • - [Narrator] By contrast,

  • the Russian Space Program has atrophied

  • - Sanctions from their invasion of Ukraine

  • are biting into their space program.

  • They plan to withdraw

  • from the International Space Station Program,

  • so they have a lot less to lose.

  • At the same time, they know how dependent

  • the United States is on space for our military,

  • for our intelligence collection,

  • and even the economic benefit that we gain

  • from our satellites orbiting the Earth.

  • So they know that we have a lot more to lose,

  • and if a situation is potentially dire for them,

  • they may be willing to make that trade.

  • (missile buzzing)

  • (gentle music)

- [Narrator] Alarm and confusion have gripped Washington.

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