Accusations from the US and UK that Russia recently tested anti-satellite weaponry in space are “distorted”, Russia’s defence ministry says. “Tests carried out [on 15 July] did not create a threat for other spacecraft,” the ministry said, adding that it had not violated international law. Moscow said earlier that it had been using new technology to perform checks on Russian space equipment. But the US and UK said they were concerned about the satellite activity. “We are concerned by the manner in which Russia tested one of its satellites by launching a projectile with the characteristics of a weapon,” the head of the UK’s space directorate, Air Vice Marshal Harvey Smyth, said on Thursday. 

It is the first time that the UK has made accusations about Russian test-firing in space, and comes just days after an inquiry said the UK government “badly underestimated” the threat posed by Russia. The US State Department also said it had observed the use by Russia of “what would appear to be actual in-orbit anti-satellite weaponry”. The US and Russia are to hold bilateral talks on space security in Vienna next week, the first since 2013.(BBC)…[+]