The U.S. is responding to dangerous space debris by banning missile tests against space satellites, becoming the first country to do so
United States Vice-President Kamala Harris chairs the National Space Council and labelled the tests as reckless and dangerous.
She emphasised that the Biden administration is determined to ensure responsible use of space.
Speaking at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California Harris says stopping the direct ascent anti-satellite missile testing will protect satellites in low-Earth orbit and urged for other countries to consider the measure.
The US, China, India and Russia have all taken part in such missile tests previously and it’s resulted in widespread debris.
Space debris presents many problems for astronauts, satellites and the growing commercial presence there.
Debris doesn’t have to be large to cause havoc something as small as a basketball could destroy a satellite and even debris the size of a grain of sand could cause serious damage.
It was only late last year that Russia tested an anti-satellite missile hitting an unused Soviet-era spy satellite in low-Earth orbit.
This strike sent 1,632 pieces of debris floating in Earth’s orbit.
Astronauts were in the International Space Station at the time and had to seek shelter in their docked capsule with the missile nearly hitting the ISS.
If this debris is to hit working satellites then we could lose a variety of services like GPS and weather warnings would be missed.
