ugc_banner

Will continue to pursue shared interests in space with New Delhi: US on India’s ASAT Test

WION Web Team
New Delhi, Delhi, IndiaWritten By: Sidhant SibalUpdated: Mar 28, 2019, 03:02 PM IST
main img
Representative image. Photograph:(Reuters)

Story highlights

Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Wednesday that India had shot down a satellite in space. The remnants of that satellite and others like it are what is called space debris. 

After India's Mission Shakti or Anti-Satellite Missile test, the United States embassy in New Delhi issued a statement saying, it will continue to pursue shared interests in space with India.

"As part of our strong strategic partnership with India, we will continue to pursue shared interests in space and scientific and technical cooperation, including collaboration on safety and security in space," the US embassy said in a statement. 

However, Washington raised concern one concern of space debris but stressed that India will handle the issue.

"The issue of space debris is an important concern for the U.S. government.  We took note of Indian government statements that the test was designed to address space debris issues," the statement said. 

Meanwhile, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on Wednesday that India had shot down a satellite in space. He added that India was now part of an elite space club since only three other countries — America, Russia and China — have the capability to do that. 

Modi added that the operation was dubbed Mission Shakti, and had taken three minutes to complete. 

The remnants of the satellite that India shot down on Wednesday and others like it are what is called space debris. 

Space debris can also be natural (caused by meteors). 

×

The European Space Agency has said that as of January 2018, there were about 29,000 objects larger than 10 centimetres, about 750,000 objects between 1 cm and 10 cm, and about 166 million objects between 1 mm and 1 cm in orbit around earth. 

These millions of objects move at about 8 kilometres per second. If two of them should collide, that would lead to a domino effect. 

They could also knock satellites that now control such a large part of our lives (Google Maps for example) out of the sky.