Military Myths and Legends: The First Air-to-Space Kill

Even before the creation of the U.S. Space Force, American military leaders have had to grapple with what a war in space might look like and what we would need to be successful. In 2022, Russia launched what U.S. intelligence believes to be an orbital anti-satellite weapon into space. China is thought to be pursuing a range of anti-satellite weapons. 

While that may seem surprising to some and downright frightening to others, it's important to remember that the U.S. has had the capability to shoot satellites out of orbit for almost 40 years – and it didn't require advanced rocketry, fuels, or some kind of secret weapons to do it, either. 

About 50 years ago, the U.S. Air Force's newest air superiority fighter took to the skies for the first time. The F-15 Eagle was intended to take lessons learned from the Vietnam War while creating a fighter that could match the power, altitude, and speed of the Soviet Union's newest MiGs, the MiG-23 and MiG-25. 

Long story short, it was a rousing success. The F-15 and its iterations, F-15A through F-15E, were so successful that the aircraft was given new life in 2021 as the F-15 EX Eagle II. Not bad for a design that first entered service in 1976, which was an interesting time during the Cold War and the Space Race. 

Younger readers won't remember the mix of awe and fear Americans felt when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space in 1957. They could see Sputnik in orbit over their country from their earthbound vantage point, an amazing achievement for man but a grim reminder that the U.S. was falling behind the Communists' space technology. The U.S. launched its first satellite, Explorer I, in 1958. 

Low earth orbit would soon be filled with man-made satellites, 115 by 1961. It wasn't long before there were communications satellites, navigation satellites, explorers, researchers, and telescopes. Spy satellites would be crucial in gathering information about Cold War adversaries. It was spy satellite data, after all, that precipitated the Cuban Missile Crisis. 

But even the most well-made satellites have a shelf life, and back then, those were much shorter than they are today. A number of satellites, long dead, still hang out in orbit around the Earth. The same was true in 1985, but one of those obsolete satellites made history as the target of the world's first-ever orbital kill.

Air Force Maj. Wilbert D. "Doug" Pearson Jr. took off from Vandenberg Air Force base in a highly-modified "Celestial Eagle" F-15A on Sept. 13, 1985. His objective: the Solwind P78-1 satellite orbiting 340 miles above Earth. His weapon of choice was an ASM-135 ASAT anti-satellite missile: 3,000 pounds of infrared-seeking explosives moving at Mach 12 in an 18-foot-long projectile. 

Pearson took off at a 65-degree angle, headed for the edge of space at Mach 1.2. At  38,100 feet, the missile was automatically activated, firing in three stages. The final stage was its homing mechanism, which hit 15,000 miles per hour, completely destroying the satellite. Pearson is, to date, the world's only "Space Ace." 

The test not only proved that it was possible to hit satellites with conventional but specially made weapons, but it also helped NASA deal with the problem of orbital debris and see what a hypervelocity collision in space might look like.