Doug Pearson Destroyed Orbiting Satellite

The first man to destroy a satellite using a missile launched from an aircraft was U.S. Air Force Major Wilbert "Doug" Pearson. On September 13, 1985, he climbed an F-15A to approximately 36,000 feet over the Pacific and fired an ASM-135 anti-satellite missile at Solwind P78-1, orbiting nearly 300 miles above him. The weapon struck without explosives, using the force of the collision to destroy the satellite and create 285 pieces of debris, the last of which took almost 19 years to leave orbit. Pearson's mission remains the only successful destruction of a satellite by an aircraft-launched weapon (as of 2026).

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