New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday announced that India had joined the elite club of space powers by shooting down a low-earth orbit satellite with an anti-satellite missile (A-SAT).
Defence Research and Development Organisation chairman G. Satheesh Reddy said the clearance for the anti-satellite missile project was given over two years back.
India has had the capability to destroy satellites since 2012 when it conducted the first test of the inter-continental ballistic missile Agni-5 with a range of over 5,000 km.
Wednesday’s test required an extremely high degree of precision and technical capability as the missile had to hit the satellite which was moving at a very high speed.
India said the test was done in the lower atmosphere to ensure that there is no space debris.
“Whatever debris that is generated will decay and fall back onto the earth within weeks,” DRDO said.
This is important as in the past China was criticised for creating space debris when it had tested anti-satellite missile as it threatened satellites of other countries moving in their orbits.
Through this test India, is not in violation of any international law or treaty.
India said it has no intention of entering an arms race in outer space. “We have always maintained that space must be used only for peaceful purposes. We are against the weaponisation of outer space and support international efforts to reinforce the safety and security of space based assets,” said the government.
