India anti-satellite missile test a 'terrible thing,' NASA chief says
India's anti-satellite missile test created at least 400 pieces of orbital debris, the head of NASA says -- placing the International Space Station (ISS) and its astronauts at risk.
NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Monday that just 60 pieces of debris were large enough to track. Of those, 24 went above the apogee of the ISS, the point of the space station's orbit farthest from the Earth.
"That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event that sends debris at an apogee that goes above the International Space Station," Bridenstine said in a live-streamed NASA town hall meeting. "That kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight." He added: "It is not acceptable for us to allow people to create orbital debris fields that put at risk our people."
Also at BBC and The Guardian.
Previously: India Shoots Down Satellite in Test
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 03 2019, @01:16AM
tongue in cheek...
Mayperhaps there should be more "shoot downs", making orbital "missions" impossible / improbable. Then, we might pay a lot more attention to preserving what's going on "on the ground"?
Downside: hard to analyze the shit we're already f*cking up, without telemetry...