US Space Force confirms weapons deployed in space for first time

"Space control encapsulates the mission areas required to contest and control the space domain – employing kinetic and non-kinetic means to affect adversary capabilities," the statement said, adding that "these capabilities can be employed for offensive and defensive purposes".

Both Russia and China — the two main geopolitical rivals of the United States — pose potential threats to US interests in space. Read:China urges US to halt military buildup in space after acknowledgment of orbital weapons.

China "develops and operates space and counterspace capabilities as part of a military modernisation strategy", while Russia "views space as a warfighting domain and believes space supremacy will be a decisive factor in future conflicts",.

The militarisation of space is as old as the space race itself — as soon as Sputnik was launched into orbit in 1957, Washington and Moscow began exploring ways to both arm and destroy satellites.

The biggest worry was once about nuclear weapons in space, but the superpowers and other countries signed the Outer Space Treaty in 1967, banning weapons of mass destruction in orbit.

Since then, Russia, the United States, China and India have explored ways to fight in space outside of that treaty, including by targeting rivals' satellites, which are key for military communications, surveillance and navigation. In early September, Reutersreported that a secretive unmanned.

Chinese spaceplaneclosely monitored by US military analysts released a small satellitehundreds of miles above Earth in an orbital region crowded with commercial and military satellites in June. The object thenloopedaround another Chinese satellite before returning towards the spaceplane, -tracking firm Leo.

Labs. Little is known about the satellite or the mission. But the US military operates a similarly secretive spaceplane resembling a small shuttle, also with no crew.

Both programs reflect the rapidly evolving field of military space operations as Beijing and Washington prepare for the possibility of conflict extending into space,, space-tracking data and interviews with current and former military officials.