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Comment by hahhichood | Hacker News Reader

I would imagine they are working on, or already have, methods for disabling satellites without blowing them up and nudging them out of a stable orbit.

Must be a way to ruin the solar panels with a laser or similar. I assume non-state actors won't be able to launch satellites that use a nuclear energy source?

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A group that can launch a satellite in orbit is also capable of launching a nuclear weapon in orbit. (That is the reason the US was so freak by Sputnik).

So presumably the US is smart enough not to mess with such groups (even if they don't actually have nuclear weapons they would still be able to do great damage with conventional explosions or even a piece of rock).

This makes no sense.

If I declare that tomorrow I'm going to launch a satellite, without going through official channels, I go to jail.

If I don't announce it beforehand and just launch, then I'd better hope I don't start a nuclear war.

The X-37 (or whatever it ends up being called in the future) likely could snatch them right out of orbit without harming anything. I have no idea if it would be worth the expense, but that sort of capability is almost certainly a goal of the design. I have no doubt that at least the USAF and maybe their foreign counterparts are very invested in just this problem.

Just launch a giant magnet at close range past it and head for the atmosphere. No debris, just burn-up.

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