The U.S. has weapons in space. Here’s what that could mean

Since the dawn of the Space Age, the weaponization of space has been an international concern. Now the United States has announced, with few details, that it has weapons in orbit. Air Force Secretary Troy Meink said September 14 at the 2026 Air and Space Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md.

With such limited information, it’s hard to know what to make of the announcement. But “the world should be listening with open ears about this information because of the wide range of consequences,” says astrodynamicist Thomas González Roberts of Georgia Tech in Atlanta. Space weapons are difficult to define and encompass many different possible technologies.

These weapons can involve satellites directly attacking other satellites, with projectiles, explosives, lasers or other methods. A satellite could physically grab and manipulate another satellite. Cyberattacks can incapacitate satellites or wrest control away from their operators.

Space weapons could also affect life on the ground, for example, by disrupting GPS services. And space weapons have a long history. In 1962, the United States tested a nuclear weapon at high altitude, which incapacitated many of the satellites orbiting at that time.

Soon thereafter, the 1967 Outer Space Treaty banned weapons of mass destruction in space. (Although, recently, the United States has alleged that Russia is testing technology needed to put a nuclear weapon in orbit.) Multiple nations, including the United States, have also tested antisatellite weapons that can take spacecraft down by launching weapons from the ground or air. Worryingly, some types of space weapons could make orbits unusable, by strewing dangerous debris that can collide with satellites or anything else in its path. Science News spoke with Roberts about what we know and don’t know about the weapons Meink referred to.

The conversation has been edited for length and clarity. SN: What do we know about these space weapons? Roberts: When I saw this news, my first take was that it’s missing a lot of adjectives.