India Shoots Down Own Satellite in Missile Test
TEHRAN (Tasnim) – India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said.
India would only be the fourth country to have used such an anti-satellite weapon after the United States, Russia and China, Modi said in a television address to the nation, Reuters reported.
Such capabilities have raised fears of the weaponization of space and setting off a race between rivals.
China’s foreign ministry said it hoped all countries “can earnestly protect lasting peace and tranquility in space”. The United States and Russia both declined to make any immediate comment.
No comment was immediately available from old rival Pakistan.
Anti-satellite weapon allows for attacks on enemy satellites - blinding them or disrupting communications - as well as providing a technology base for intercepting ballistic missiles.
“Our scientists shot down a live satellite 300 kilometers away in space, in low-earth orbit,” Modi said in his address.
“India has made an unprecedented achievement today,” he said, speaking in Hindi. “India registered its name as a space power.”
Modi faces a general election next month. He went on Twitter earlier to announce his plan for a national broadcast, saying he had an important announcement to make.
India has had a space program for years, making earth imaging satellites and launch capabilities as a cheaper alternative to Western programs.
It successfully sent a low-cost probe to Mars in 2014 and plans its first manned space mission by 2022.
The latest test, conducted from an island off India’s east coast, was aimed at protecting Indian assets in space against foreign attacks, the government said.
China destroyed a satellite in 2007, creating the largest orbital debris cloud in history, with more than 3,000 objects, according to the Secure World Foundation.
The United States performed the first anti-satellite test in 1959, when satellites themselves were rare and new.
The Soviet Union performed similar tests. In the 1960s and early 1970s, it tested a weapon that would be launched into orbit, approach enemy satellites and destroy them with an explosive charge, according to the Union of Concerned Scientists.
In 1985, the United States tested the ASM-135, launched from an F-15 fighter, destroying an American satellite called Solwind P78-1.
There were no tests for more than 20 years, until 2007, when China entered the anti-satellite arena.