NASA: Debris from India's destruction of its own satellite a threat to International Space Station

NASA says the risk of debris colliding with the space station has increased in the 10 days following the test

India ' s destruction of one of its own satellites was a "terrible thing" according to the chief of NASA, with the debris caused by the exercise posing a threat to astronauts aboard the International Space Station (ISS).

"It ' s unacceptable and NASA needs to be very clear about what its impact to us is," NASA head Jim Bridenstine said while addressing employees at NASA headquarters.

On 27th March, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the nation on television and announced the success of an anti-satellite weapon test, which destroyed one of India ' s own satellites at an altitude of 300km.

The successful test, dubbed "Mission Shakti", made India the fourth country in the world to have completed such a test, after the US, Russia and China.

The government said that the test was carried out at a low altitude to ensure that any space junk created from the destruction of the satellite would fall back to Earth ' s atmosphere within weeks.

Bridenstine, however, has criticised the test, saying that the risk of debris colliding with the space station has increased by 44 per cent over the 10 days following the exercise.

According to Bridenstine, some pieces of space debris created by the destruction of the satellite are as big as 10cm, although not all pieces were big enough to be tracked.

"What we are tracking right now, objects big enough to track — we're talking about 10 centimetres (six inches) or bigger — about 60 pieces have been tracked," he said.

Although the satellite was destroyed well below the ISS and most other satellites in orbit, 24 pieces had moved "above the apogee" of the space station, according to Bridenstine.

Statistical models cited by the European Space Agency estimate about 900,000 pieces of debris bigger than a marble orbiting the Earth. Of them, about 34,000 objects are larger than 10cm in size.

Bridenstine said that all astronauts aboard the ISS are safe, and that the space station could be manoeuvred if needed to avoid the debris.

"The good thing is, the debris is low enough in orbit that in time, this will all dissipate. A lot of the debris from China ' s anti-satellite test in 2007 is still in orbit, and we ' re still dealing with it," he added.

In 2007, China shot down a satellite at a higher orbit of 870km. The debris generated from that test still orbits the Earth, threatening satellites and space missions.

Presently, several nations are working on various schemes, including nets, lasers and harpoons, to remove space junk from Earth ' s orbit.

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