Relatively simple technology — an ordinary medium-range ballistic missile — suffices to take out a satellite the way the Chinese government apparently did last week.

The US government says China launched a ballistic missile on January 11 that destroyed one of its own spacecraft, a defunct weather satellite, in an apparent test of anti-satellite technology.

The destruction of the satellite is thought to have produced millions of fragments, including 40,000 more than 1 centimeter across and 800 more than 10 centimeters across. Centimeter-scale fragments are large enough to destroy satellites.