India: Space debris will burn out within 45 days
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India expects space debris from its anti-satellite weapons launch to burn out in less than 45 days, its top defense scientist said yesterday, seeking to allay global concern about fragments hitting objects.
The comments came a day after India said it used an indigenously developed ballistic missile interceptor to destroy one of its own satellites at a height of 300 kilometers, in a test aimed at boosting its defenses in space.
Critics say such technology raises the prospect of an arms race in outer space, besides posing a hazard by creating a cloud of fragments that could persist for years.
G. Satheesh Reddy, chief of India鈥檚 Defense Research and Development Organization, said a low-altitude military satellite was picked for the test, to reduce the risk of debris left in space. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 why we did it at lower altitude, it will vanish in no time. The debris is moving right now. How much debris, we are trying to work out, but our calculations are it should be dying down within 45 days.鈥
Few satellites operate at the altitude of 300km, from which experts say the collision debris will fall back to Earth, burning up in the atmosphere in a matter of weeks, instead of posing a threat to other satellites.
In Florida, on a visit to the US military鈥檚 Southern Command, acting US Defense Secretary Patrick Shanahan warned any nations contemplating similar anti-satellite weapons tests that they risked making a 鈥渕ess鈥 in space from debris.
The Unite States military鈥檚 Strategic Command was tracking more than 250 pieces of debris from India鈥檚 missile test and would issue 鈥渃lose-approach notifications as required until the debris enters the Earth鈥檚 atmosphere,鈥 Pentagon spokesman Dave Eastburn said.
India鈥檚 test of the anti-satellite weapon from an island off its eastern coast broke a lull since the US used a ship-launched SM-3 missile to destroy a defunct spy satellite in 2008.
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