Yesterday, Russia announced that it had tested with perfect precision the weapon whose target was its old satellite and rejected the accusations of the USA, Britain and NATO that the test was dangerous for the spacecraft in orbit.
US officials said Monday's test created a debris field in low Earth orbit that threatened the International Space Station (ISS) and will pose a danger to space activities for years.
Secretary General of NATO Jens Stoltenberg he said the test was reckless, a threat to the ISS and an orbiting Chinese spacecraft, and showed that Russia was developing new weapons systems, Reuters reported. A British government spokesman condemned the test and called on Moscow to join discussions at the United Nations on "responsible behavior in space".
And NASA condemned the "irresponsible and destabilizing" rocket test.
The Russian Ministry of Defense has said that debris from the test does not pose a threat to the ISS and that Washington knows this.
"We have successfully tested a promising system. He hit the old satellite with surgical precision. The resulting debris is not a threat to space activity," said the defense minister Sergei Shoigu.
The target was the inactive "Tselina-d" spacecraft, which has been in orbit since 1982, the ministry said in a statement. It added that the US, China and India had conducted similar tests in the past.
The anti-satellite test forced the ISS crew to take shelter in the Soyuz and SpaceX Dragon capsules.
The Ministry of Defense said that Russia is forced to strengthen its military capabilities due to the fact that the US is testing weapons and that Washington is establishing a space force in 2020.
Moscow said it had sought an agreement to halt the deployment of weapons in space, but that Washington and its allies had blocked the deal at the United Nations.
As the commercial use of space has expanded in recent years, access to low Earth orbit has become increasingly important.
The ISS orbits the Earth in this zone and the station shares a low Earth orbit with a mega-constellation of satellites. The portal "Konverzejshn" writes that the use of space is increasingly threatened by space debris from anti-satellite (ASAT) missile tests, which are mainly carried out to demonstrate technological power.
China destroyed its FY-2007C weather satellite in January 1, creating more than 2.000 pieces of trackable debris.
Both Russia and the US have conducted ASAT in the past. Before this Sunday, India last performed in 2019, becoming the fourth country to do so.
"Issues of space debris and destructive use of space create great concern in terms of the environment and national security," writes "Konversajshn".
The commentary points out that the consequences of the latest Russian test will be felt for some time. Although less debris will burn up in the atmosphere, it will remain a threat to the ISS and other operators in low Earth orbit.
Studies have estimated that 79 percent of the waste created by China's test in 2007 will remain in orbit until 2108, the portal writes, with the assessment that it is time to stop these "unnecessary demonstrations of power."
The debris, floating in space hundreds of kilometers above the earth, risks colliding with satellites or the space station. Given that they move at a tremendous speed - about 25.265 kilometers per hour, they can cause serious damage in the event of a collision, writes Reuters.
"Every satellite that goes into orbit has the potential to become space debris," says the professor Hugh Lewis, head of the Astronautics Research Group at the University of Southampton.
Reuters writes that the US government monitors about 23.000 pieces of debris orbiting the Earth and says there are half a million pieces larger than one centimeter and 100 million pieces of debris one millimeter or larger.
The European Space Agency (ESA) estimates that the total mass of all space objects in Earth's orbit weighs more than 9.600 tons.
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