But while the weapon placed in orbit may be unusual, the US – and indeed its Russian and Chinese rivals – have had weapons that can be pointed and shot into space for some time.

In a later BBC interview, Bowen was dismissive of China’s reaction to the US announcement which warned against an arms race in space, describing it as “the pot calling the kettle black”.

“If you’re already an expert… you know how hollow those words are coming from the Russian and Chinese governments,” he said.

“The United States, Russia and China and also India have all developed different kinds of anti-satellite or counter-space weapons, and Russia and China have put a lot of technologies in space which have a lot of weapons potential,” he added.

In fact in the past 10 years, Russia and China have been doing a lot more manoeuvres in space, known as rendezvous and proximity operations (RPOs) – “buzzing” Western satellites.

“Theoretically, these RPO [satellites]can become hunter-killer satellites by physically colliding with them or by nudging them out of orbit,” Dr Rod Thornton, reader in Russian Defence and Security Studies at King’s College, London, told the BBC.

Bowen added that the Chinese have demonstrated “space tug capability”, saying: “A vehicle can go up to a satellite, can grapple it and move it into a different orbit.”

This, he said, could be a positive development – a way of removing space junk as well as knocking out working satellites.

However, some types of space weaponry also have the potential to create huge amounts of space junk.

Dr Mark Hilborne, a specialist in space security and weaponisation at King’s College, said direct ascent anti-satellite missile tests, such as one carried out by China in 2007, leave a great deal of debris in orbit for a very long time.

Suess said debris from that test was still in orbit and still dangerous.

“It doesn’t have to be a sort of huge piece of metal to do any damage, it can be a tiny piece of plastic, given the velocity that we’re talking about in orbit,” she said.