US accuses Russia of testing anti-satellite weapon in space

In Moscow, the Defense Ministry said the July 15 event involved "a small space vehicle" that "inspected one of the national satellites from a close distance using special equipment." It added that the inspection "provided valuable information about the object that was inspected, which was transmitted to the ground-based control facilities." The US, however, said the Russian actions were inconsistent with the stated mission of an inspector satellite "The Russian satellite system used to conduct this on-orbit weapons test is the same satellite system that we raised concerns about earlier this year when Russia maneuvered near a US government satellite," said Gen John W. Raymond, commander of Space Command and the head of US Space Force.