The most of the debris created from the anti-satellite test held by India in the month of March have decayed and the rest of it is going to be disperse in a “short period of time”, DRDO Chairman G Satheesh Reddy has said.
He also further said this in the reply to a query after bringing a talk on ‘Technology for National Security’ at the Institute for Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA) on Friday, a city-based think tank.
Satheesh Reddy has said, “As I had mentioned on April 6, the debris were to decay in a few weeks time. As per the information that we have already got, most of the debris have decayed. And, whatever, couple of pieces are there, they will be decaying in a short period of time.”
The Defence Research and Development Organisation chief said the non-stop info being received is examined and “I don’t think there are any issues”.
He also further added, “It is extremely difficult to predict as to how many days it would take…But, as I had said that day, that they would decay in a few weeks, and majority of them have decayed.”
At a press conference at DRDO Bhawan held on April 6, Reddy had said India selected a much lesser orbit of less than 300 km for the duration of ‘Mission Shakti’ for “capability demonstration” as well as to avoid risk of debris to worldwide space assets.
His comment had arisen days after the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) upraised worries about the spread of debris from India’s anti-satellite test held on March 27.
Also, the India’s Ministry of External Affairs has said the test was held in the lower atmosphere in order to make sure that there is no space debris.
On an additional query on leakage of defence know how-related data, he said, “We haven’t seen cases as such, but we are careful”.
He said, “There are no serious issues as such, but of late, because of the apprehensions of cyber attacks and cyber-related issues, we are sensitising people in the industry and also in our own laboratories on it”.
On 27 March 2019, the Republic of India declared that it had demolished a “live satellite” in Low Earth orbit. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi happening to be India’s Space Minister as well, make a speech to the nation in order to declare about Mission Shakti, the name attributed to the test.
In an announcement which was released after the test, Indian Ministry of External Affairs said that the test was held at low altitude in order to ensure that the resulting debris would “decay and fall back onto the Earth within weeks”.
As per to the Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, some debris may possibly carry on for a year, but maximum should burn up in the atmosphere within numerous weeks. Brian Weeden of Secure World Foundation also agreed with his statement but cautioned about the probability of a number of fragments getting boost up to higher orbits. US Air Force Space Command said that it was following total of 270 pieces of debris from the test.
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