A Russian senior officer on Tuesday suspected that the collision between a U.S. Iridium satellite and a Russian military satellite last month was manipulated by the United States intentionally.

Major general Leonid Shershner told the daily Moskovski Komsomolez that the United States might be testing a new technology aiming to intercept and destroy satellites from rival countries.

The new technology includes ways to monitor other satellites at various orbits so that the U.S. control center on the ground can lock on any target, impose influence on and even destroy them when necessary.

The officer questioned the ownership of the U.S. communications satellite. The U.S. satellite was reportedly belongs to the Maryland-based Iridium Satellite LLC.

Although the Iridium 33 satellite was designed for peaceful aims, yet it could be transferred for military purposes by the U.S. military once it was put into use, he said.

He explained that the Iridium 33 satellite was equipped with a navigation system, which can detect any target getting close to it and send signal back to the control center on the ground, so that the center can change the satellite's orbit timely to avoid such accident.

Unfortunately, such preventive measures did not occur, Shershner added.

The collision, which occurred at 11:55 a.m. EST (1655 GMT) on Feb. 10, involved a 560-kg U.S. Iridium commercial satellite launched in 1997, and a 900-kg Russian satellite launched in 1993 and presumed non-operational.

The collision shot out a pair of massive debris clouds, igniting fears that the large debris may threaten the international space station and other spacecrafts.

NASA believed that the risk caused by the collision to other spacecrafts is low.

(Xinhua News Agency March 4, 2009)