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Modi Hails India's Arrival as Space Power After it Shoots Down Satellite in Test:
India shot down one of its own satellites in low-Earth orbit with a ground-to-space missile on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, hailing his country's first test of such weaponry as a breakthrough establishing it as a military space power.
India would only be the fourth country to have used such an anti-satellite weapon after the United States, Russia and China, said Modi, who heads into general elections next month.
"Our scientists shot down a live satellite 300 kilometers away in space, in low-Earth orbit," Modi said in a television broadcast.
"India has made an unprecedented achievement today," he added, speaking in Hindi. "India registered its name as a space power."
Elections are coming up, and more than one politician is trying to make their name as the Space General of the future.
[Updated 2019-03-28 to properly quote source article.--martyb]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by bob_super on Thursday March 28 2019, @12:21AM (5 children)
You became a space power when you sent a probe to Mars, and that was enough.
Thanks for shooting something at only 300km (months to a couple years to deorbit) rather than 800km like China (hundreds of years).
But really, you've got nukes and almost 1.4B people (about 1B, since you refuse to notice your 300M muslims), don't be like Sarkozy walking on his toes to try to look tall. You're important. You're strong. Stop doing dumb shit to remind yourself. Everyone knows.
(Score: 1, Troll) by JoeMerchant on Thursday March 28 2019, @02:01AM (3 children)
What I don't get is: why space? Pakistan is right next door.
🌻🌻 [google.com]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Thursday March 28 2019, @02:08AM
Less fallout, this way.
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 1) by khallow on Thursday March 28 2019, @02:59AM
So is China.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @03:33PM
To be sure, you have to do it from orbit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday March 28 2019, @01:20PM
This isn't about being a space power, it's about being an anti-sat power before an upcoming treaty gets finalized and it becomes much harder, legally speaking, to do so.