From: Ad 

http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2007/02/afDFNSpace070202/

"As worldwide attention focuses on China’s first successful
anti-satellite missile test, U.S. officials are questioning why some
Chinese spacecraft are in orbits that bring them close to key U.S.
satellites, according to military sources.

The big question is the scale and progress of the Chinese anti-satellite
program, including whether the Chinese spacecraft are benign or time bombs
that can someday be used to threaten the space assets on which the U.S.
military and economy depend for everything from reconnaissance and dropping
bombs to logistics, communications and navigation.

The Chinese spacecraft don’t appear to be conducting any particular
mission. Rather, “there is a menu of missions that could be performed that
we are not yet clear about,” said one source. “These things aren’t being
sent up there to be space rocks.”

A 50-page report submitted Jan. 19 to Congress cites evidence that China is
considering a covert anti-satellite network that could debilitate the
United States in wartime.

For more than a decade, U.S. officials have warily eyed China’s growth as a
space power, particularly its interest in developing anti-satellite systems
to counter an overwhelming American superiority in space."

"Accidental collision" is so much more "explainable"
than a direct kinetic collision with a converted IRBM.

Possibly lay a little cloud of "space junk" in the path of a US spy sat.

Difficult to prove anything.


Adam

--- BBBS/NT v4.01 Flag-5