Country echoes concerns of NASA that debris from test could damage the International Space Station.
Pakistan has expressed “grave concern” over India’s test last week of an anti-satellite weapon and its potential impact on existing space installations such as the International Space Station (ISS), according to a foreign ministry statement.
On March 27, India announced it had successfully undertaken an anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test, destroying one of its own satellites in low-orbit around Earth using a modified ballistic missile.
“This [anti-satellite weapon] test should be a matter of grave concern for the international community, not only in terms of generation of space debris but also because of its ramifications for long-term sustainability of peaceful space activities,” the Pakistani foreign ministry statement released on Tuesday said.
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who heads into a general election later this month, hailed the test as a sign of India’s arrival as a “space power”.
On Monday, however, the administrator for US space agency NASA, Jim Bridenstine, said the test created 400 pieces of orbital debris that could damage the ISS and other satellites.
“That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event that sends debris in an apogee that goes above the International Space Station,” Bridenstine said at a town hall event, referring to the highest point the debris reached in orbit.
“And that kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human space flight that we need to see happen.”
NASA has calculated that the debris from India’s ASAT test has increased the probability of debris hitting the ISS by at least 44 percent over 10 days, with 24 of the 60 pieces it is tracking currently travelling above the apogee of the ISS.
India says the debris is harmless and will not affect any other satellites or the ISS.
“The test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there is no space debris,” said an Indian foreign ministry statement. “Whatever debris that is generated will decay and fall back onto the earth within weeks.”
