ASAT debris will burn out in 6 months, says ISRO scientist countering NASA

Misra was former director of Ahmedabad-based Space Applications Centre (SAC), a crucial arm of ISRO that is working on India’s plans for human space flight Gaganyaan.

Explained | Space debris from Indian satellite: NASA’s worry, and why risk is low

He said the DRDO experiment was “not an explosion” but was more like a “bullet”. The distinguished ISRO scientist said, “The Chinese did an experiment at 800 kilometre altitude where the air pressure is not much. The debris is still flying around.”

The ISRO scientist’s comments come on a day after the administrator of the United States’ National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Jim Bridenstine said that the space agency had identified 400 pieces of orbital debris from India’s anti-satellite test that posed a risk to the ISS.

The International Space Station was launched way back in 1998 and has been seen over 54 crewed missions. Jim had said that a similar test conducted by China in 2007 had posed greater risk than the recent Indian test.

Misra said there already existed space debris in large numbers, and that several countries were monitoring them through a network of radars, cameras and telescopes. “They are cooperating with each other…If you see space debris (on a collision course), you can always change the course of the satellite,” Misra said, adding that India would not do anything “deliberately” that would cause accidents in space.

During his talk, Misra also said that China was a “formidable power” in space and the “biggest player” in Asia.