ByBrendan Nicholson andForeign Affairs Correspondent
International condemnation descended on China last night after it fired a missile into space to destroy one of its weather satellites, raising the prospect of a new space arms race.
The Chinese missile test, which happened a week ago, is the world's first since the 1980s, when the United States and the Soviet Union both destroyed satellites in space.
Australia, the US, Canada and Japan expressed alarm at China's dramatic technological leap, which runs contrary to international efforts to limit the militarisation of space.
Defence experts warned that the ability to shoot down satellites could give China the ability to paralyse the world's transport networks by knocking out its global positioning systems.
And the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade said debris from last week's blast could endanger manned and unmanned spacecraft belonging to a number of countries, including Australia.
The US State Department has confirmed that on January 12, China used a land-based ballistic missile to collide with its ageing satellite, which was orbiting 865 kilometres above the Earth.
The enormous forces involved smashed the satellite into tens of thousands of pieces, creating a mass of space debris.
China's move appears to have caught Western nations by surprise. Experts believe that China has been provoked into staging this very public demonstration of its capabilities by the US's insistence on creating its global anti-ballistic missile system, in which Australia is to play a part.
They fear China's feat will encourage other countries to follow suit, placing the world's transportation, navigation and communication systems at risk.
A spokesman for China's foreign affairs department said yesterday he was not aware of the test. "Usually the media write stories on hearsay evidence; we don't have time to verify such stories," he said.
But White House sources said US spy agencies believed the test had been carried out.
And Japan said China had told it through diplomatic channels that its intentions were peaceful. "China consistently uses space only for peaceful purposes," Japanese Foreign Minister Taro Aso quoted the Chinese foreign ministry as saying, but he was also critical of the test.
Foreign Minister Alexander Downer, who is in New York, immediately instructed his department to call in China's ambassador, Madame Fu Ying, to discuss the experiment. Mr Downer said Australia would be concerned if an arms race developed in space. US national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe said China's development and testing of such weapons was inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspired to in the civil space area.
Alan Behm, a former senior Defence Department official who now advises on strategy and risk, toldThe Age the Chinese development had enormous implications.
"We're talking here about some very precise targeting … If the spying satellites of the US suddenly found themselves under threat or attack by anti-satellite technology that also would have a profound impact on global stability."
Mr Behm said that for the Chinese to be able to hit a satellite about a metre wide 850 kilometres away was a significant achievement and one that could encourage other countries to try to do the same. That would force those with vulnerable satellites to find ways to defend them with anti-missile technology.
"It means that instead of having anti-missile warfare, we're going to have anti-satellite warfare. That is a very serious development."
Dr Philip Dorling, visiting fellow at the Australian Defence Force Academy, said that China's move was no surprise.
"Faced with the United States' overwhelming nuclear superiority and development of a national missile defence system, it has been inevitable that China would seek to develop asymmetric capabilities that could strike at US military space assets," he said. With
with Mark Coultan, agencies