Mr. Chair, that's a great question.
There are a lot of variables in the answer. It would really depend on the size of the weapon. That would obviously be something we would be interested to understand, if this were in fact a reality.
Where on orbit it would then be detonated is also a concern—low earth orbit, medium earth orbit, geostationary or somewhere in between—as it would certainly affect the blast pattern, or the blast radius, if you will. Whether or not those effects would then reach across various orbital domains would also be something we'd be interested to try to understand, as well as the long-term effects.
Obviously there would probably be destructive effects with those satellite vehicles that would be in the direct line of sight of such a blast. The follow-on concern then becomes the irradiated space that would exist afterwards, again depending on the orbital domain, that other satellites might be going through over the next period of time, whether that would be hours, days, weeks or what have you.
The expectation is that it would have a deleterious effect. Whether that would result in the destruction of those satellites or a reduced lifespan or would have no effect at all remains to be seen. Certainly when those tests were done in the 1960s, there wasn't nearly the on-orbit activity that we have now, so it would be kind of hard to assess that at the moment.