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The CEO of a rocket launch company is urging the US to develop a spaceship to defend against satellite-killing weapons from China.
Tory Bruno, the CEO of United Launch Alliance (ULA), published a blog post warning that China has weaponized space by placing “satellite killers” in Earth’s orbit. These weapons could deliver a first strike by disrupting US communication networks in the event of a war.
“There was a time when we worried that a terrestrial conflict might extend into space. We now know that it will begin in space,” he warns.
Bruno is particularly concerned about China attacking low-Earth orbiting satellites, including the nearly 7,000 satellites spanning SpaceX’s Starlink network. Because of their low orbits, Bruno claims missiles from China can reach them in 10 to 15 minutes.
“The satellites orbit in thin, dense shells, making them vulnerable to a cascade attack that deliberately starts a debris field which can rapidly self-propagate through many satellites,” he added, meaning China could theoretically knock out large swaths of the Starlink network despite the redundancies.
Bruno then says placing satellites in a “blend of multiple orbits” would help US satellite networks “take a few punches” from such attacks. But to fully counter the threat, ULA’s CEO is pushing for the US military to develop “a squadron of lightning-fast, long-range, lethal interceptors.”
“To use a naval analogy, we need destroyers in orbit, the Greyhounds of Space,” he added. Bruno describes them as a “large vehicle” with ample fuel supplies and engines to maneuver quickly in Earth’s orbit and take out China’s satellite killers. “A handful of such vehicles could patrol all of Earth’s orbit,” he said.
The proposal may seem far-fetched, but it arrives amid real concerns about China one day invading Taiwan, which could spark a war with the US. In 2019, a Pentagon report also mentioned that China and Russia are likely building high-powered lasers that can shoot down US satellites and missiles.
Obviously, a space war could have devastating consequences. A major concern is the threat of orbital debris piling up from satellite attacks, creating more collisions and debris and rendering some unusable. Bruno acknowledges this but says, “There are a number of techniques for disabling the attacker in a safe, non-polluting manner. One of those is the right approach.”
It’s unclear how serious Bruno is about his Greyhounds in space idea. ULA didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment. In the meantime, the company has been refining its Vulcan Centaur rocket, which Amazon has contracted to launch its Project Kuiper satellites into space. Vulcan Centaur is also slated to fly more than two dozen US Space Force missions.
