This Is The Story Of How US Airforce F-15 Shot Down A Satellite In Space

Such a fantastic event only happened once in the history when a classified ASAT ( anti-satellite ) missile was fired towards an orbiting satellite.

The development and advancement in anti-satellite arms were slowed down after the period of the cold war. In recent years its growth has boomed again, and the U.S, Russia, and China are fielding new bigger weapons.

Pearson is the only pilot on Earth who executed a mission in space and that too with precision. Pearson achieved this on 13th September 1985, in the skies over the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, the target satellite was US P78-1 Solwind. Pearson got promoted to the higher rank of Major General along with this remarkable achievement.

It was the most massive missile ever equipped on an F-15 Eagle. Vought designed the weapon. It was based on the Short Range Attack Missile design, a nuclear-tipped missile used by the B-52 bomber. They added a second stage and modified the missile to ascend straight into space, its infrared-guided sensor package was the catch and picked up the target, guided the missile straight into a collision.

Though the program was promising but was taken as inflammatory and many believed this might light a space war between the military giants. All the progress was restricted, relating to the space arms program as It possessed huge risks. Nevertheless, it was an amazing feat!