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India Shoots Down Satellite in Test (reuters.com)

Posted by msmash on from the space-power dept.

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.

5 of 158 comments (clear)

  1. Space Debris by mholve · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Thanks for contributing. Have a nice day!

    1. Re:Space Debris by ShanghaiBill · · Score: 5, Informative

      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.

    2. Re:Space Debris by jdastrup · · Score: 5, Interesting

      They should be using something that could actually modify the orbit of the satellite either forcing it outside of earths gravity on a trajectory for the sun.

      Actually, launching anything into the sun is extremely difficult. It takes speeds of at least 65K mph to counteract Earth's orbit in order to hit the sun and not just end up in an elliptical orbit. It's easier to send something outside of the solar system at just 25K mph.

  2. Re:Jerks by bobbied · · Score: 5, Informative

    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
  3. So 2000s by the_skywise · · Score: 5, Insightful

    It's impressive but from an actual strategic standpoint it may already be out of date.
    Russia has already moved to hypersonic cruise missiles that don't have to go into space to deliver their payload.
    You don't need spy satellites anymore when you can have smaller, faster, lighter, remote drones fly into a nation to do photographs.
    Satellites are still necessary to national infrastructures so space weapons are still useful but it's no longer a panacea to a nation's security, let alone defense.