[Even small pieces of debris in orbit can be dangerous because of the speed at which they move. In 2011, crew members on the International Space Station took refuge in escape capsules because of an unidentified piece of debris, which passed within 1,100 feet of the station at a speed of 29,000 miles per hour.]
By
Kai Schultz
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Celebrating
last week in Ahmedabad, India, after Prime Minister Narendra Modi
announced that
India had shot down a satellite. Credit Amit Dave/Reuters
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NEW
DELHI — NASA has criticized
India for the antisatellite test it carried out with great fanfare last week,
saying it was riskier than officials claimed and created debris that could
threaten the International Space Station.
“That kind of activity is not compatible with
the future of human spaceflight that we need to see have happen,” Jim
Bridenstine, NASA’s administrator, said on Monday at a town hall event in
Washington organized by the agency.
He said that India, in shooting down one of
its own satellites with a rocket, had left debris high enough in orbit to pose
a risk to the International Space Station, calling that a “terrible, terrible
thing.” The space station currently hosts a crew of six people.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the
downing of the satellite last Wednesday, a test launch that put India in an
exclusive group of nations — along with the United States, China and Russia —
with the capability to destroy targets in space.
“India stands tall as a space power!” Mr.
Modi tweeted after the announcement. He said the test had been “indigenous,”
accomplished entirely by Indians. Scientists estimate that the satellite India
destroyed was moving around the Earth at 17,000 miles per hour.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs said in
a statement that the test — called Mission Shakti, the Hindi word for “power” —
had been carried out in the lower atmosphere “to ensure that there is no space
debris.” The statement said that if the test created debris, it would “decay
and fall back onto the earth within weeks.”
But Mr. Bridenstine said NASA had identified
400 pieces of orbital debris from the test, including about 60 trackable pieces
at least 10 centimeters in size. Two dozen pieces were identified above the
highest point of the International Space Station’s orbit. The station serves as
a research laboratory and has hosted astronauts from 18 countries since it was
launched into orbit in 1998.
“The good thing is, it’s low enough in Earth
orbit that over time this will all dissipate,” Mr. Bridenstine said of the
debris.
But that process takes time, he said. Much of
the debris from a 2007 Chinese antisatellite test, for instance, is still in
orbit. That test generated more debris than any other on record, with more than
2,000 trackable pieces.
Even small pieces of debris in orbit can be
dangerous because of the speed at which they move. In 2011, crew members on the
International Space Station took refuge in escape capsules because of an
unidentified piece of debris, which passed within 1,100 feet of the station at
a speed of 29,000 miles per hour.
NASA estimated that India’s test increased
the risk of small-debris impact to the International Space Station by 44
percent, Mr. Bridenstine said.
There was no immediate response to his
remarks from the Indian government.
NASA’s announcement was not the first
negative reaction to India’s antisatellite test. Some analysts said last week
that it could have worrying geopolitical consequences, intensifying a space
race with China and threatening the delicate balance of power between India and
Pakistan, which are both armed with nuclear weapons.
Mr. Modi made his announcement in a rare
televised address to the nation, and some suspected the prime minister was
trying to drum up support for his governing Bharatiya Janata Party, with voting
set to begin next week in hotly contested general elections.
The elections are expected to be the biggest
in history, with nearly 900 million people eligible to cast ballots. Mr. Modi
saw a burst in support in the polls after India conducted airstrikes in
Pakistan in February, in retaliation for a suicide bombing in Kashmir that
killed Indian soldiers.
