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India Shoots Down Satellite in Test (reuters.com)
India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, hailing the country's first test of such technology as a major breakthrough that establishes it as a space power. From a report: India would only be the fourth country to have used such an anti-satellite weapon after the United States, Russia and China, said Modi, who heads into general elections next month. "Our scientists shot down a live satellite 300 kilometres away in space, in low-earth orbit," Modi said in a television broadcast. "India has made an unprecedented achievement today," he added, speaking in Hindi. "India registered its name as a space power." Anti-satellite weapons allow for attacks on enemy satellites, blinding them or disrupting communications, as well as providing a technology base to intercept ballistic missiles. Update: U.S. says studying India anti-satellite weapons test, warns on debris.
Nope. No space debris. The satellite was destroyed in very low earth orbit. Really in the upper reaches of the atmosphere. The orbits of the smaller pieces will decay within hours. The bigger chunks will de-orbit in a few days or weeks.
India did this test far more responsibly than China's 2007 test, most likely because of the worldwide condemnation of China's behavior.
It was only in LEO - this stuff will de-orbit pretty quickly. In a couple of weeks to months, it will all be gone. Unlike the results of the China test or all the stuff we have parked in geosynchronous orbit, which won't deorbit before the sun expands and swallows us...
"File to fit, pound to insert, paint to match" - Aircraft Maintenance 101
I guess not bothering to read the article is something of a tradition here, but this point is addressed. From TFA:
The three-minute test in the lower atmosphere ensured there was no debris in space and the remnants would “decay and fall back on to the earth within weeks”, the ministry added.
So, no space debris, unlike China's test, which was at a much higher orbit, and caused a huge cloud of debris that will last anywhere from decades to centuries.
Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.