Some nations have deployed space weapons. Here's what issues are worrying experts

Key Points:

• A recent report identifies five categories of counterspace capabilities being developed by 13 countries, including satellites designed to maneuver near or disable spacecraft, missile interceptors, electronic warfare tools, lasers, high-power microwaves, and cyber operations targeting space networks.
• The 1967 Outer Space Treaty, signed by major spacefaring nations, bans nuclear and weapons of mass destruction in space and declares space a global commons for peaceful use, but it lacks provisions addressing modern conventional weapons and verification mechanisms.
• Dual-use technologies complicate defining space weapons, hindering international consensus on a comprehensive treaty to ban all weapons in space; efforts to negotiate such agreements have stalled amid geopolitical tensions and disagreements.
• The U.S. has emphasized space militarization, creating the Space Force and developing missile defense systems, while Russia and China’s attempts to introduce new arms control treaties face obstacles, partly due to differing views on ground-based anti-satellite weapons and space debris concerns.
• Space debris generated by kinetic anti-satellite weapons and satellite collisions poses a significant risk to spaceflight safety, with tens of thousands of tracked debris pieces and millions of smaller fragments threatening satellites and crewed space stations.