Russia and the United States have had some problems because of the chance of a nuclear weapon being launched into space.
An argument between the two countries has made a lot of people nervous. The US says Russia has or is building a nuclear weapon in space that could attack satellites and make it hard for people to talk to each other on Earth. China has said that the US is lying about everything and that this is just a way for the US to get politicians to pass a bill that will help Ukraine.
On Tuesday, Reuters reported that a source had said that the US thinks Moscow is working on a “space nuke.” The source went on to describe the bad things that could happen with such a weapon, such as cutting off military and cell phone contacts.
The first scary thing we heard about Russia was from Mike Turner, Chairman of the U.S. House Intelligence Committee. He said that Russia was a “serious national security threat” and demanded that Biden release all information about it so that they could get ready.
Following the accusations, Joe Biden stated that Russia is making an anti-satellite weapon. He said it did not pose a “nuclear threat” but he hoped Russia would not use it. Following this, a source said the weapon in space might be fired as soon as this year.
Analysts said that this kind of weapon could do “indiscriminate damage” and could mess up many systems that people use every day, like banking, GPS, and weather services.
“Space nukes” are weapons that are sent into space to damage satellite services. These services could be used to stop military communications or stop private communications. A lot of experts say that if it were used, it would be omnidirectional, which means it would touch everyone on Earth, not just one place or country.
