The destruction of a rogue spy satellite by the United States has triggered concerns over a new arms race in space. A missile fired from a US warship on Wednesday shot down the satellite before it entered the earth’s atmosphere. The satellite - USA 193 – went out of control shortly after it was launched in December 2006. It was expected to crashland on earth early March. The destruction of the satellite is technologically a neat feat. It was a high-precision operation.

The US military had a window of only 10 seconds for the missile-launch. But the worrying question is whether the US should have launched a missile to destroy the satellite at all. Pentagon officials have claimed that they had no choice but to bring down the satellite as its tank of toxic fuel would have created a major environmental hazard had it crashed into earth. The argument is unconvincing. The chances of it hitting land were rather remote. Some believe that the US feared that military technology loaded on to the satellite would fall into the hands of its rivals in the space race; hence the decision to destroy it before it entered the earth’s atmosphere.

It is hard to dispel the feeling that the destruction of the satellite by a missile was in fact a covert test of a space weapon. Such tests were outlawed by the 1972 US-Soviet Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty. US President George Bush unilaterally abrogated the treaty in 2001. The US has conducted several tests in the past to intercept one missile with another. Now it has taken it further by intercepting a wayward satellite with a missile. The US’ programme for militarisation of space has taken a leap forward with the destruction of the satellite. It is a provocative move and is likely to spur similar responses from other countries. It can set off a new arms race in space.

The Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which bans weapons of mass destruction in space, is outdated. There is an urgent need for its expansion to put a ban on deployment of all forms of weapons in space. Russia and China have proposed a new draft treaty that would ban the deployment of space-based weapons and the use or threat of force against satellites or other spacecraft. The US must step back from its military adventurism in space. It is dragging the world down a dangerous road to self-destruction.