After a brief lull, the Soviet Istrebitel Sputnikov programme resumes flight tests of its co-orbital interceptor against its own Cosmos targets in low Earth orbit. The renewed campaign confirms what Pentagon planners had warned for a decade — that operational satellites are vulnerable to a kinetic weapon already in the inventory of a single great power.
Washington responds by formally re-launching its own ASAT effort under the US Air Force, ending any near-term prospect of an arms-control freeze. From this moment forward, every nation flying anything important in orbit knows there is a working button that can be pressed against it.