WASHINGTON (NewsNation) — The Pentagon is warning that Russia has “likely” launched a new anti-satellite weapon into space that U.S. intelligence officials say is capable of intercepting, attacking and inspecting objects in low Earth orbit.

The anti-satellite counter-space weapon is the latest string of space-related actions the U.S. has condemned as reckless, explaining that it presents a threat to a government satellite.

Russia launches weapon into space

“Russia deployed this into the same orbit as a U.S. government satellite,” Pentagon spokesman Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said.

According to the Pentagon, Russian space crews conducted the launch May 16 at a site around 500 miles north of Moscow, sending the weapon and multiple satellites into space.

“This is something that we’ll continue to monitor,” Ryder said. “We have a responsibility to protect the space domain.”

This comes months after the House Intelligence Committee chair caused an uproar when he announced Congress had information on a “serious national threat.” U.S. intelligence leaders then revealed that Russia could be developing a space-based anti-satellite nuclear weapon that could destroy satellites belonging to the U.S. or other allies.

Russia has denied the existence of this weapon, even describing reports of the launch as “fake news.”

United Nations measure fails

World politicians fear this could become a future global trend, with members of the United Nations Security Council condemning it even as they failed to pass a measure against it.

Every nation says it wants weapons barred from space, and council members repeated that Monday. But when it came time to vote, the council evenly split 7-7 between backers of the U.S. and of Russia, with Switzerland abstaining. The measure failed under U.N. rules because it didn’t receive nine votes.