The Soviet government was set to adopt the Polyot-Kosmos anti-satellite -- ASAT -- weapons system after Kosmos-252 successfully destroyed the first spacecraft in orbit on Nov. 1, 1968, and after successful subsequent launches.

However, in 1972 the Soviet Union and the United States signed the Strategic Arms Limitation Treaty -- SALT-I -- and the Anti-Ballistic Missile -- ABM -- Treaty, which also covered ASAT systems.

Depending on the pace of bilateral talks, the ASAT test program was either mothballed or resumed. The ASAT system was eventually adopted and subsequently upgraded.

In 1976 the Soviet Union began to launch second-generation satellite interceptors, featuring new target-acquisition and homing systems, first installed aboard Kosmos-814. Flying along a lower orbit, the latter quickly overtook the target satellite, accelerated and found itself less than 1,000 meters from the "victim."

Enemy tracking stations cannot promptly detect such high-speed interceptors and protect the doomed spacecraft.

If promptly notified by mission control, KH-9, codenamed HEXAGON and popularly known as Big Bird, a series of photographic reconnaissance satellites launched by the United States between 1971 and 1986, could have switched on their rocket engines to escape destruction.

Several dozen satellite interceptors were launched under the test program. The Soviet Union held its last ASAT test during a major troop exercise in July 1982. At that time, ground intercontinental ballistic missiles and submarine-launched ballistic missiles -- SLBMs -- were fired. The Soviets also launched military satellites, including the Kosmos-1379 interceptor, which hit a simulated U.S. navigation satellite. Moreover, missile interceptors were launched against incoming ballistic-missile warheads.

The United States called that exercise a seven-hour nuclear war that provided the U.S. Department of Defense and some American politicians with a pretext for demanding the creation of new-generation ASAT and missile defense systems.

In August 1982 U.S. President Ronald Reagan gave the go-ahead to the relevant program, and on March 23, 1983, he announced the Strategic Defense Initiative, which focused on strategic defense rather than the prior strategic offense doctrine of mutual assured destruction.

In August 1983 Yury Andropov, general secretary of the Soviet Communist Party's Central Committee, proposed banning space-defense system tests. However, Soviet ASAT systems remained in combat duty.

In April 1991 their upgraded version, the IS-MU, was commissioned and mothballed by Russian leaders in August 1993.

Moscow is now studying the possibility of upgrading the national space-defense system and satellite interceptors, since the United States continues to reject all Russian initiatives per an agreed-upon decision on preventing the militarization of outer space.

Russia could manufacture lighter but more advanced ASAT weapons with space-to-space missiles and launch them into geostationary orbits -- 22,000 miles above the Earth. Moscow also could reactivate its ASAT facility at the Baikonur Space Center or redeploy that base to a firing range in Russia.

Russia is also examining the possibility of launching ASAT rockets from the Russian Strategic Missile Force's missile silos.

(Yury Zaitsev is an academic adviser with the Russian Academy of Engineering Sciences. This article is reprinted by permission of RIA Novosti. The opinions expressed in this article are the author's and do not necessarily represent those of RIA Novosti.)

(United Press International's "Outside View" commentaries are written by outside contributors who specialize in a variety of important issues. The views expressed do not necessarily reflect those of United Press International. In the interests of creating an open forum, original submissions are invited.)

The Historic Beginnings Of The Space Arms Race Part One