Shooting down a spy satellite whose orbit is decaying is either an exercise in super power vanity or an action designed to escalate the further militarization of space.
The Chinese shot down a satellite of their own last year and essentially took the first shot of this kind to break out of informal norms that powers would not formally flex muscles that showed their ability to potentially blind the space-based intel machinery of their rivals.
Even if those who agitated for this “shot” were not thinking in such GeoStratSpace terms and wanted to try and destroy the satellite just because they think they can, the “bad politics” as my colleague Jeffrey Lewis (aka ArmsControlWonk) of this are quite substantial.
— Steve Clemons
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