Useful Tool or Weapon of War
A Chinese satellite is reported to have grappled another Chinese satellite, which had ceased to function, and towed it into a graveyard orbit. On the surface this would seem to be good news, given that certain very useful (and therefore very valuable) orbits are becoming cluttered with old, worn-out equipment that makes it difficult to utilize those orbits to their fullest. A lot of this equipment dates back to the first few decades of the Space Age, when it appeared as if orbital space was in infinite supply and space garbage collection was entirely the province of comedy shows (anyone remember the 1970's TV show Quark?
However, there's a dark side to this capability. A satellite which can grapple and move satellites that its operators have a legitimate clam upon is a satellite that can also be used to disable or destroy satellites to which the operator has no legitimate right. And here we circle back around to the theme of trust that keeps coming up: can we trust the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party to respect the property rights of others and use their satellite only for its legitimate function of taking out China's trash? Or is there a significant risk that they will also use it (or others like it in different orbits) to make surprise attacks on US or allied orbital assets?
However, there's a dark side to this capability. A satellite which can grapple and move satellites that its operators have a legitimate clam upon is a satellite that can also be used to disable or destroy satellites to which the operator has no legitimate right. And here we circle back around to the theme of trust that keeps coming up: can we trust the People's Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party to respect the property rights of others and use their satellite only for its legitimate function of taking out China's trash? Or is there a significant risk that they will also use it (or others like it in different orbits) to make surprise attacks on US or allied orbital assets?