India has come under fire for firing a missile into space and destroying a satellite in a move meant to demonstrate its anti-satellite (A-SAT) weapons capability, which would make it the fourth nation after the US, Russia, and China, confirmed to have such technology.
PM Narendra Modi, who revealed the test, designated as Mission Shakti, on Wednesday, hailed its success as "an unprecedented achievement" that makes India "a space power." However, with great power comes great responsibility, and various international agencies have decried the move as irresponsible, even as ISRO scientists and Indian government agencies sought to allay fears.
G. Satheesh Reddy, the chief of the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), told Reuters that a low-altitude military satellite had been picked for the test, in order to reduce the amount of debris left in space. “That’s why we did it at lower altitude, it will vanish in no time,” he told Reuters, adding, “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.”
Reuters also reported that the U.S. military’s Strategic Command was tracking more than 250 pieces of debris created by Mission Shakti, and it would issue “close-approach notifications as required until the debris enters the Earth’s atmosphere,” as stated by Pentagon spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Dave Eastburn.
Well, as per a simulation by a software engineering company called Analytical Graphics Inc. (which, according to its website, "visualizes objects in space and time with unprecedented accuracy") a debris field of 6500 pieces was created by the destruction of the satellite.
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And the thing is, while firing an anti-satellite missile and bringing down an unoffending orbital object vaguely makes for good optics, it definitely makes for bad physics. The amount of space litter orbiting the planet is literally running out of space to orbit.