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, @04:59AM (1 child)
Why destroy them? Just knock it back in. It will mostly burn up on reentry, right?
(Score: 2) by All Your Lawn Are Belong To Us on Wednesday April 03 2019, @06:08PM
Or just capture it and bring it down safely. [wikipedia.org]
This sig for rent.