What weapon could the US have put into space?

Bowen also would not rule out some sort of more disruptive and riskier weaponry, which could create a lot of debris and destruction."Less likely would be a kinetic kill vehicle of some sort, so a vehicle that would release a projectile of some sort that could ram into a satellite and destroy it," he said."Possibly some sort of close inspection and grappling satellite would be another possibility as well."But while the weapon placed in orbit appears to be a first, the US - and indeed its Russian and Chinese rivals - have had weapons that can be pointed and shot into space for some time.In fact in the last 10 years, Russia and China have been doing a lot more manoeuvres in space, known as rendezvous and proximity operations (RPOs) - "buzzing" Western satellites."Theoretically, these RPO sats can become hunter-killer satellites by physically colliding with them or by nudging them out of orbit," Dr Rod Thornton, reader in Russian Defence and Security Studies at King's College, London, told the BBC.Bowen adds that the Chinese have demonstrated "space tug capability", saying: "A vehicle can go up to a satellite, can grapple it and move it into a different orbit."This, he says, can be a positive development - a way of removing space junk as well as knocking out working satellites.