A-SAT debris will burn out in 45 days, says DRDO official on NASA's concerns

New Delhi, Apr 03: A day after National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA)'s claimed that India's anti-satellite missile test had increased collision risk to the International Space Station, a Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) official, who did not wish to be named, said that the debris of A-SAT will disappear in 45 days.

"The test was calibrated keeping in mind the debris issue. The world should know that debris from two Chinese tests is still floating whereas those created by the Indian test will disappear," he added.

On Tuesday, Tapan Misra, senior advisor to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman, said that India would not conduct any actions to deliberately cause accidents in space, as reported by The Indian Express.

Misra was former director of Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), a crucial arm of ISRO that is working on India's plans for human space flight Gaganyaan.

His statement came a day after NASA chief Jim Bridenstine said that the test had created 60 pieces of orbital debris big enough to track and 400 pieces of debris in total. Of these, 24 pieces rise higher than the International Space Station's orbit around Earth, Bridenstine had said.

"That is a terrible, terrible thing, to create an event that sends debris in an apogee that goes above the International Space Station," Bridenstine had said. "And that kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight that we need to see happen."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced that the test, known as Mission Shakti, was successful. His announcement, however, was criticised and described as a violation of the Model Code of Conduct by many.

The International Space Station was launched way back in 1998 and has been seen over 54 crewed missions. Jim had said that a similar test conducted by China in 2007 had posed greater risk than the recent Indian test.

Debris from China's 2007 anti-satellite missile launch is still floating around in space. The test created nearly 3,000 pieces of debris, AFP reported. The United States military is currently tracking 23,000 objects in space, of which 10,000 are debris.