India’s ASAT test a response to growing space threats: France
01, May 2019
Prelims level : Recent Space missions
Mains level : Why china and Pakistan bothering about India’s ASAT test? Evaluate.
- Outer space becoming an arena of rivalry between nations.
- Defence and offensive space technologies are being developed with various aims of spying, gaining control, deactivating service and destroying, French Envoy in India Alexandre Ziegler has supported India’s Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile test as a response to these growing threats.
BACKGROUND:
Debris concerns:
- Satellites today have to avoid almost 6,00,000 debris of over 1cm travelling at speed faster than a bullet.
- On March 27, India shot down a live satellite in the Low Earth Orbit (LEO) of 300 km using a modified interceptor of the Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system.
- India and France, which have been cooperating in the area of space for several decades, had announced the setting up of a constellation of satellites for maritime surveillance of the Indian Ocean.