Russian nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles roll across Red Square in Moscow, … More American intelligence agencies have revealed Moscow is now developing a nuclear-armed spacecraft to loft into orbit AFP PHOTO \/ KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV (Photo credit should read KIRILL KUDRYAVTSEV\/AFP\/GettyImages)<\/p>\n
AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n
After American intelligence discovered Russia is secretly developing nuclear-armed fighter spacecraft to challenge the Western space powers, a U.S. space defense outfit is testing futuristic inspector craft that could find a warhead hidden inside a capsule circling the planet.<\/p>\n
The Kremlin\u2019s clandestine project to station hyper-powerful weapons in orbit could escalate its nuclear brinkmanship, conducted via a barrage of threats to deploy its atomic arsenal – the world\u2019s largest – against any Western ally directly helping Ukraine repel its Russian invaders.<\/p>\n
Moscow has also warned it could begin shooting down American satellites<\/a> aiding Ukraine – including SpaceX\u2019s broadband-beaming sats<\/a> – extending its military belligerence into the celestial sphere.<\/p>\n Russian envoys to the UN have repeatedly threatened to begin shooting down American satellites … More aiding Ukraine – including the SpaceX Starlinks that are beaming broadband internet connections to besieged Ukrainian students and soldiers (Photo by: Alan Dyer\/VWPics\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images)<\/p>\n VWPics\/Universal Images Group via Getty Images<\/p>\n A nuclear blast in low Earth orbit could – in a flash – destroy thousands of satellites and might – depending on its proximity to the International Space Station – endanger the lives of all the ISS astronauts.<\/p>\n While the White House has leaked some details on Moscow\u2019s covert scheme to loft uranium warheads into orbit, the timing of the first launch is still shrouded in secrecy.<\/p>\n Now, ThinkOrbital – co-founded by onetime leaders at the U.S. Space Force and the independent rocket titan SpaceX – is refining its leading-edge X-ray inspector spacecraft to spy inside satellites launched by potentially hostile powers for weapons of mass destruction.<\/p>\n ThinkOrbital\u2019s inspectors, when launched into low Earth orbit, would be capable of detecting nuclear warheads disguised as civilian satellites, says Lee Rosen, a former Commander of the 4th Space Launch Squadron who now heads the space defense start-up.<\/p>\n Colonel Rosen told me in an interview that ThinkOrbital\u2019s next-generation inspectors include two partner craft: one emits high-energy X-rays at a satellite speeding through space, while the other records the images the X-rays produce as they pass through the target.<\/p>\n \u201cThe detector spacecraft would be positioned on one side of the target, and the X-ray emitter on the other side,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n This orbital X-ray system could detect nuclear bombs no matter how intricately they are camouflaged, and even as they speed through space at 28,000 kilometers per hour, Rosen says.<\/p>\n The detonation of a powerful nuclear warhead near the International Space Station would kill its … More astronauts within hours, say American experts on nuclear weaponry. (Photo by Alexander Gerst \/ ESA via Getty Images)<\/p>\n getty<\/p>\n Rosen, who left his last post as a VP of Mission and Launch Operations at SpaceX to form ThinkOrbital, says the Colorado-based outfit is now testing the new detection system, and aims to launch twin demo missions into orbit next year.<\/p>\n Development of the world\u2019s first X-ray set-up for space-based scouting missions is being partly funded by the U.S. Space Force, Colonel Rosen says, via a series of SpaceWERX contracts as part of the rapidly expanding drive to strengthen American space defenses.<\/p>\n ThinkOrbital\u2019s twin inspectors, once in orbit, can bolster American \u201cspace domain awareness\u201d and preparations for prospective space clashes of the future<\/a>, he says.<\/p>\n A flotilla of ThinkOrbital’s X-ray Imagers peer into satellites speeding through low Earth orbit to … More check for concealed nuclear warheads and other weaponry in this rendering of future missions<\/p>\n Rendering courtesy of Lee Rosen and ThinkOrbital<\/p>\n The ability to know what each spacecraft launched by a potentially hostile power is doing in orbit, and its payload, is essential for the U.S. Space Force, Rosen adds.<\/p>\n Kremlin threats to deploy its nuclear and anti-satellite missiles against Western targets underscore the importance of gathering continuous real-time intelligence on Russian rocket forces.<\/p>\n Moscow\u2019s stationing fission or fusion bombs in orbit would violate the Outer Space Treaty – the fundamental international pact that governs space missions across the solar system.<\/p>\n \u201cStates Parties to the Treaty,\u201d the UN space compact declares, \u201cundertake not to place in orbit around the Earth any objects carrying nuclear weapons or any other kinds of weapons of mass destruction, install such weapons on celestial bodies, or station such weapons in outer space in any other manner. \u201d<\/p>\n All the major space powers, including then-Soviet Russia, signed the treaty a generation ago, and violating its ban on atomic warheads in space could threaten the future of spaceflight around the world.<\/p>\n The White House moved to confirm Moscow\u2019s campaign to position strategic warheads hundreds of kilometers above the Earth when it introduced a UN Security Council resolution last year underscoring this longstanding proscription on nuclear arms in space.<\/p>\n The Russian ambassador to the UN quickly vetoed the measure, prompting then-National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to declare: \u201cWe have heard President Putin say publicly that Russia has no intention of deploying nuclear weapons in space. If that were the case, Russia would not have vetoed this resolution.\u201d<\/p>\n The ever-expanding threat of advanced missiles and nuclear super-bombs being produced by potential adversaries impelled the White House to propose constructing a Golden Dome missile defense shield<\/a> around the globe that could hypothetically protect against ICBMs launched from any point on the planet.<\/p>\n As the Department of Defense begins building out this supermassive dome, Colonel Rosen says, ThinkOrbital\u2019s inspectors could play a pivotal role in safeguarding the myriad Allied sensors and armed interceptors – aimed at detecting and blasting an enemy\u2019s ballistic missiles during the first three minutes of their post-launch boost phase – from any nuclear time bombs skulking through the heavens.<\/p>\n The White House has leaked sparse details of Russia’s top-secret project to launch nuclear warheads … More on spacecraft that would orbit the planet (Photo by Chris Kleponis – Pool\/Getty Images)<\/p>\n Getty Images<\/p>\n With the building of the orbital dome, Rosen says, \u201cthat\u2019s going to be a big juicy target\u201d for any power challenging U.S. pre-eminence in space.<\/p>\n Spenser Warren, a prominent American expert on Moscow\u2019s new-millennium race to strengthen its nuclear arsenal, says he strongly backs Colonel Rosen\u2019s prediction that the Golden Dome could become a prime target in any future face-off with Russia.<\/p>\n \u201cI do think that Russia may launch a strike against space-based Golden Dome assets, if realized, in the event of a conflict,\u201d Warren, a postdoctoral fellow at the University of California Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, tells me in an interview.<\/p>\n \u201cCould it be nuclear? It probably could,\u201d predicts Warren, whose doctoral dissertation was titled, \u201cRussian Strategic Nuclear Modernization under Vladimir Putin.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAny significant conflict with any peer or near-peer adversary,\u201d he adds, \u201cwill undoubtedly have a space dimension.\u201d<\/p>\n Vladimir Putin has spent much of his reign modernizing Moscow’s nuclear missiles while attempting to … More push Russia’s borders outward through military force and nuclear threats (Photo by Alexander NEMENOV \/ AFP) (Photo by ALEXANDER NEMENOV\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n AFP via Getty Images<\/p>\n Colonel Rosen says that to help pre-empt any attacks against the American dome launched from an orbital platform, \u201cthere are multiple uses for our inspector spacecraft.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAs part of the Golden Dome, we could help protect the protectors.\u201d<\/p>\n Fleets of ThinkOrbital inspectors, Rosen says, could patrol the high-traffic rings surrounding the Earth, randomly scanning spacecraft launched by rival powers for concealed weaponry.<\/p>\n ThinkOrbital\u2019s primary goal, he says, is \u201cgiving our commanders the ability to understand the space battlefield.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThis will contribute to the whole space war-fighting mission.\u201d<\/p>\n ThinkOrbital\u2019s mission of adapting X-ray technology to scout for nuclear arms surreptitiously circling the globe could help provide \u201cprotection for all satellites in LEO [low Earth orbit], if that is indeed where the Russians put their satellite with a nuclear warhead, and again, if they end up deploying it,\u201d says Victoria Samson, Chief Director, Space Security and Stability at the Secure World Foundation, one of Washington DC\u2019s leading space defense think tanks.<\/p>\n \u201cA nuclear ASAT would be a crude but effective weapon against a very large constellation of satellites, whether it\u2019s thousands of [SpaceX] Starlinks or thousands of [DOD] space-based interceptors,\u201d Samson, one of the top space security experts in the U.S., tells me in an interview.<\/p>\n While ThinkOrbital\u2019s current focus is on lofting its prototype inspectors at the start of 2026, its longer-range goal is to launch a series of orbital modules and ultimately a colossal space station – four times the size of the ISS.<\/p>\n Nearly two years ago, ThinkOrbital\u2019s founders signed a Space Act Agreement with NASA<\/a> to collaborate on developing \u201csingle-launch, large-scale orbital platforms that facilitate a wide array of applications in low Earth orbit, including in-space research, manufacturing, and astronaut missions.\u201d<\/p>\n ThinkOrbital was one of just seven American space-tech leaders, alongside Blue Origin, SpaceX and Sierra Space, hand-picked by NASA to design independent space stations slated to populate the closest orbital lanes when the ISS is decommissioned, or the spacecraft that will speed government and private astronauts to these new space outposts – as long as the current de facto space truce holds<\/a>.<\/p>\n ThinkOrbital\u2019s long-range goal is to launch a series of orbital modules and ultimately a colossal … More space station – four times the size of the ISS.<\/p>\n Rendering courtesy of Lee Rosen and ThinkOrbital<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Russian nuclear-tipped intercontinental ballistic missiles roll across Red Square in Moscow, … More American intelligence agencies have 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