China warns US against 'weaponising' space after Trump ordered Pentagon to create a new command centre for controlling military space operations
- U.S. President Donald Trump launched the new 'Space Command' yesterday
- Comes amid concerns China and Russia are working to disrupt U.S. satellites
- The centre will integrate space capabilities in across all branches of the military
- Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman criticised the order in a briefing today
China said today that it opposed the 'weaponisation' of space as it criticised U.S. President Donald Trump's orders to create a new command centre for controlling military space operations.
Trump yesterday ordered the creation of 'Space Command', a new organisational structure within the Pentagon, an effort to better organise and advance the military's vast operations in space that could cost as much as $800 million (£632 million) over the next five years.
The move comes amid growing concerns that China and Russia are working on ways to disrupt, disable or even destroy U.S. satellites.
U.S. President Trump yesterday launched the 'Space Command', a new organisational structure within the Pentagon that will have overall control of military space operations
The centre will be the Pentagon's 11th combatant command. The move comes amid growing concerns that China and Russia are working to disrupt, disable or even destroy U.S. satellites
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The 'Space Command' will be separate from Trump's goal to build an entirely new branch of the military called 'Space Force' - but could be a step in that direction.
'I direct the establishment, consistent with United States law, of United States Space Command as a functional Unified Combatant Command,' Trump said in a memo to Defense Secretary Defense Jim Mattis yesterday.
Speaking at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida's Cape Canaveral, Vice President Mike Pence said the new U.S. Space Command will integrate space capabilities across all branches of the military.
'It will develop the space doctrine, tactics, techniques and procedures that will enable our war fighters to defend our nation in this new era,' Pence said.
SpaceCom, as it will inevitably come to be known, will be the Pentagon's 11th combatant command, along with other well-known commands including Central Command and Europe Command.
Speaking at the Kennedy Space Center yesterday, Vice President Mike Pence (pictured) said the U.S. Space Command will integrate space capabilities across all branches of the military
Chinese foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying said at a press briefing today that 'China has consistently proposed the peaceful usage of space, and opposes the weaponisation of space and a space arms race'.
'We oppose even further turning space into the new battleground,' she added.
It is not the first military space entity proposed by the U.S. president this year.
In June, Trump said he wanted to create 'Space Force', an entirely new branch of the military, alongside the Navy, Marine Corps, Army, Air Force and Coast Guard.
He insists such a move is necessary to tackle vulnerabilities in space and assert U.S. dominance in orbit.
But its creation is not a done deal, as it needs to be approved by Congress, and the concept has met with some scepticism from lawmakers and defence officials wary of the cost and added bureaucracy.
China has also bolstered its space capabilities in recent years.
Earlier this month, the country launched a rover heading to the far side of the moon, a global first that could boost Beijing's ambitions to become a space superpower.
In 2013, China landed its first probe on the moon, Yutu or 'Jade Rabbit'.
China's latest mission to the moon
China sent a probe to uncharted territory on the dark side of the moon earlier this month.
Chang'e-4 took off from the Xichang satellite launch centre in Sichuan, south-west China, on December 8.
It will target our natural satellite's South Pole-Aitken basin's Von Karman crater, the largest in the entire solar system at 15,000 miles (24,000km) across and eight miles deep.
A Long March 3B rocket lifts off from the Xichang launch centre in Xichang in China's southwestern Sichuan province on December 8 for the mission to probe the moon
The probe has successfully entered a stable orbit around our natural satellite.
It is expected to land on the dark side of the moon at some point in early January - after completing its 27 day journey through space - but the country's space agency has not announced a set date.
Exploring the huge divot on the surface of the moon may shed new light on its history and geology by collecting rocks that have never been seen before.
Chang'e-4 has been described as 'hugely ambitious' and heralded as a sign of China's growing intentions to rival the space exploration prowess of the U.S., Russia and the EU.
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