Debris from anti-satellite test to disintegrate in 45 days: official

  1. Defence sources have said that debris from anti-satellite missile test are expected to disintegrate in 45 days. India has assured that that there will be no space debris left as the test was conducted in the lower atmosphere. Being in the Low Earth Orbit, the debris would fall towards earth and burn up as soon as they enter the atmosphere.
  2. Recently, India has successfully demonstrated Mission Shakti, an anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile test. The Mission was carried out by shooting down Microsat-R with a modified exo-atmospheric missile of the ballistic missile defence at an altitude of 300 km. Microsat-R is a imaging satellite which was launched by ISRO using a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in January 2019.
  3. North American Aerospace Defence Command (NORAD) has said that the satellite had disintegrated into at least 270 pieces and have reported to have been tracking the space debris.
  4. Space debris are artificial material that is orbiting Earth but is no longer functional. They consists of dead satellites, spent rocket motors, nuts and bolts etc. Space debris is a threat to active satellites and spaceships as they pose risk of collisions.