Its author listed what he believed were signs of such preparation: competition in the pace of space launches, an “insatiable appetite” for aerial imagery, Chinese satellite rendezvous, reports that aggressor Russia is developing nuclear weapons for space, and the Pentagon’s desire to revive “Star Wars.”
Suzanne Hake, executive vice president of US-based Vantor, told Axios that China and Russia are deploying “significantly more of their capabilities” in space, and the line between routine activity in space and illegal behavior there is becoming thinner.
Hake considers it a global problem that “space has no national boundaries.”
Already, space resources are helping in serious operations, the media writes, citing as an example the US special operation to capture its leader Nicolas Maduro in Venezuela. As it turned out, the United States Space Force provided communications to the ground military in the absence of communications in Caracas, from where Maduro was removed.
In the context of the development of space weapons, the author of the material mentioned US President Donald Trump, whose administration is interested in “both the exploration and militarization of space” (this is regulated by a number of documents), and the head of the White House himself “intensified and complicated this international dynamic.”
The publication considers the establishment of contacts between Trump and the owner of SpaceX Elon Musk, Trump’s order to place nuclear reactors on the Moon, as well as the US President’s desire to cover the country with an anti-missile “Golden Dome” worth $175 billion as signs of the US authorities’ desire to place weapons in space.
U.S. Space Operations chief Chance Saltzman has “made it clear” that space is now a “combat domain,” Gokul Subramanian, senior vice president of engineering at Anduril Industries, told Axios. He emphasized that the statement that outer space is a peaceful territory no longer corresponds to reality.
The journalist calls the disappearance of satellite communications one of the possible consequences of hostilities in space.
Context
In March 2018, Trump, holding the presidency for the first time, declared the need to create a space force in the USA, in In June, the head of the White House instructed the Department of Defense to begin creating a separate, sixth branch of troops within the US armed forces. They were created in 2019.
On February 4, 2024, the head of the US House Intelligence Committee, Mike Turner, stated that there is information about a “serious threat to the national security” of the United States. ABC News, citing sources, reported that we are talking about the Russian Federation’s intention to send nuclear weapons into space.
On February 15, at that time, the coordinator for strategic communications of the US National Security Council, John Kirby, said that the weapons that the Russian Federation is developing for space does not yet pose a threat.
In May, the Pentagon announced that Russia had launched into space anti-satellite weapon and took him out into the same orbit where the US government satellite was located.
In April 2025, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said that Russia could place its nuclear weapons in space and point them at satellites.
