China successfully carried out its first test of an anti-satellite weapon last week, signalling its resolve to play a major role in military space activities and bringing expressions of concern from the US and other capitals, Washington said yesterday.

Only two nations — the Soviet Union and the United States — have previously destroyed spacecraft in anti-satellite tests, most recently the US in the mid-1980s.

The weather satellite hit by the Chinese weapon had circled the globe at an altitude of roughly 800 km. In theory, the test means that China can now hit American spy satellites, which orbit closer to Earth. The satellites presumably in range of the Chinese missile include most of the imagery satellites used for basic military reconnaissance, which are essentially the eyes of the American intelligence community for military movements, potential nuclear tests and even some counterterrorism, and commercial satellites.

Experts said the weather satellite’s speeding remnants could pose a threat to other satellites for years or even decades.

Arms control experts called the test, in which the weapon destroyed an aging Chinese weather satellite, a troubling development that could foreshadow an anti-satellite arms race. Alternatively, however, some experts speculated that it could precede a diplomatic effort by China to prod the Bush administration into negotiations on a weapons ban.

“This is the first real escalation in the weaponisation of space that we have seen in 20 years,” said Jonathan McDowell, a Harvard astronomer who tracks rocket launchings and space activity. “It ends a long period of restraint.”

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