While numerous man-made satellites and the Hubble Space Telescope orbit the earth in the Exosphere, the International Space Station (ISS) orbits within the Thermosphere, which is the layer of Earth’s atmosphere below the Exosphere.  And too, long distance nuclear warheads like Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) and Fractional Orbital Bombardment Systems (FOBs) can venture there too!

Short-range ballistic missiles (SRBM) typically stay within the Earth’s lower atmosphere, while most larger missiles travel outside Earth’s atmosphere before returning to their intended targets located upon the Earth.

Cruise missiles remain within the atmosphere for the duration of their flight and can fly as low as a few meters off the ground. Flying low to the surface of the earth expends more fuel but makes a cruise missile very difficult to detect. And, yes, both can be designed to carry nuclear warheads.

The type of ballistic missile capable of carrying nuclear warheads with the greatest range is an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile (ICBM) with a range exceeding 3,400 miles; the largest of which are capable of full orbital flight, meaning they can circumvent Earth if necessary to pinpoint a designated target.  Countries whose nuclear ICBMs pose a threat to the US include Russia, China, and North Korea. These nations possess ICBMs capable of reaching the US homeland. Other nuclear-armed countries like France, the UK, India, Pakistan, and Israel do not have the capability to strike the US with their ICBMs.

The US has dreamed of an effective ICBM Defense system since the days of Reagan, the 40^th US President. Even Trump, the 45^th and 47^th US President envisioned developing a “Golden Dome” defense system comprised of a network of hundreds of satellites and Earth based defense systems that could detect, track and intercept via laser and radar technology incoming nuclear tipped missiles. Unfortunately, the defensive satellite system swiftly proved to be an impossible task as with each attempt to place or establish such laser equipped satellites in the upper reaches of Earth’s Exosphere, they were mysteriously destroyed, by unidentified Alien drone attacks!

Following more than a dozen attempts, and the expenditure of more than 175 billion US Dollars, the Golden Dome project was “scrubbed” by Trump’s last Executive Order on the morning of January 20^th of 2029, only hours before departing the White House!

Today, FakeNews has learned that the US Missile Defense Agency (MDA) and SpaceX has accidentally stumbled upon what appears to be a defensive system capable of intercepting or stopping all nuclear equipped weapons that enter Earth’s ‘space’ region from Earth. At this time its origin remains an unknown. Nonetheless, any device, vehicle or missile carrying a nuclear warhead, apparently regardless of size, that crosses the imaginary “Kármán” line located 100 kilometers above Earth’s Sea level and is the generally accepted boundary between Earth’s atmosphere and outer space, will encounter a powerful electromagnetic pulse that seems to be generated via an unknown high-powered microwave technology. The effect is adverse and worldwide, in that the entire electronic system and infrastructure of said nuclear weapons laden vehicle is disrupted; effectively forcing it to fall helplessly from the sky. 

Unchanged, this has effectively rendered Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBMs), Fractional Orbital Bombardment Systems (FOBs) and Submarine-Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs) obsolete!

But can Short-range or Intermediate-range Ballistic Missiles and Cruise missiles be intercepted by the Iron Dome missile defense system that Israel made a household word just a few years back? Nope, nonetheless, a missile defense system known as David’s Sling, developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems and Raytheon, a major U.S. defense contractor, is a system that is designed to intercept short-to-medium range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and other advanced threats at ranges up to 300 kilometers (186 miles).