China managed to destroy a satellite with a medium ballistic missile. The immediate ramifications of that are obvious: they can knock out the aerospace intelligence capability of her enemies.
The satellite was some 500 miles (800km) above the earth.Talk about setting cats amongst the pigeons.
At the very least, it represents the first significant escalation in the space weapons race in 20 years.
Only the United States and the former Soviet Union have previously destroyed targets in space and that was back in the 1980s.
Although this time China used a relatively old-fashioned ballistic missile to target the satellite, it is also thought to be working on far more sophisticated laser technology to do the job.
US officials have been alarmed by the test itself and the failure of China to announce what it was doing either publicly or privately.
A White House spokesman said the "development and testing of such weapons is inconsistent with the spirit of co-operation that both countries aspire to in the civil space area".
He said both the US and other countries were concerned.
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