"(CNN) – India's anti-satellite missile test created at least 400 pieces of orbital debris, the head of NASA says — placing the International Space Station (ISS) and its astronauts at risk. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine said Monday that just 60 pieces of debris were large enough to track. Of those, 24 went above the apogee of the ISS, the point of the space station's orbit farthest from the Earth.
"That is a terrible, terrible thing to create an event that sends debris at an apogee that goes above the International Space Station," Bridenstine said in a live-streamed NASA town hall meeting "That kind of activity is not compatible with the future of human spaceflight." He added: "It is not acceptable for us to allow people to create orbital debris fields that put at risk our people."
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on March 27 that the country had achieved a "historic feat" by shooting down its own low-orbit satellite with a ground-to-space missile. Only three other countries — the US, Russia and China — have anti-satellite missile capabilities." (CNN)
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What did we think was going to happen? When our Space Force, Russia’s Aerospace Force and/or what ever China is calling their military space capability come to blows, this is what’s going to happen. Now throw India and Lord knows who else into the mix. We will be blowing each other’s satellites out of orbit and launching replacement satellites as fast as we can. The process will then repeat itself until no one’s satellites will survive in low Earth orbit… for a long, long time. It should cause our military and space leaders to contemplate a space MAD situation.
We have agreed to keep nuclear weapons out of space. The ABM treaty limited anti-satellite weapons in space, but that was shot to hell long ago. There are no other limitations on blowing each other’s satellites out of orbit including nothing in the laws of war.
I suggest that this is a fertile field for a grand international agreement. Let Trump lead such an effort. Obviously the negotiations will be long and technical, but I think Trump is the ideal person to push such an idea. Let him make space safe for international exploration or even a peaceful space race.
TTG
https://www.cnn.com/2019/04/02/india/nasa-india-anti-missile-test-intl/index.html
