I'm John Batchler. This is Hotel Mars Episode N. I'm joined by my colleague Doug Messier, who keeps

Doug Messier's substact page on the events in low Earth orbit, in geosynchronous orbit,

certainly in space engineering, and exploration of the planets and beyond. Right now,

however, we're turning to a recent series of articles, one of which appeared in the Financial

Times about weaponizing space, militarizing space, preparing for war in space by the People's

Republic of China. Doug, a very good evening to you. I report from the F.T. In January 2020,

China's Xinjiang 21 satellite used a robotic arm to tow a defunct Baidu navigation satellite into a graveyard orbit. U.S. generals were alarmed by Beijing's ability

to seize a satellite in geostationary orbit geo,

some 36,000 kilometers from Earth, and to dispose of it several hundred kilometers above that.

A year later, the U.S. Office of the Director of National Intelligence warned that such displays, quote,

proved China's ability to operate future space-based, counter-based weapons.

End quote.

There are other examples in this FTPs of China apparently practicing either to intercept

or to surveil or to in some fashion threaten and even capture

satellites of its adversaries. Doug, is this a new story or has this been developing for

some years and do you credit it as right now China's capable of defeating us in space? Good

evening to you. Good evening, too.

Good evening, John.

Yeah, this has been developing over a series of years.

They've been testing technology to mess up satellites and seize them and destroy them for a number of years now.

And it is worrying because in the event of a war, if China were to attack Taiwan,

they would try to take out our most vital satellites

...