India demolishes its own satellite and declares itself "superpower of space"

NEW DELHI.-

L & # 39; India

Today, he demolished one of his own satellites in space with a missile, said Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who hailed the first test of this type of technology in the country, which constitutes a important advance that makes it a spatial potential.

In a televised Hindi speech to the nation, Modi said that India was becoming the fourth country to use anti-satellite weapons, after the United States, Russia and China. This type of capability has raised fears of an arms race in space.

Modi's announcement comes in the midst of a political campaign ahead of the general elections that will take place from April 11 to May 19, and barely five weeks after the start of hostilities.
a military crisis with Pakistan that triggered a wave of tension between neighboring countries.

Anti-satellite weaponry can attack enemy satellites – by stopping or interrupting their communications – while providing a technological base for intercepting ballistic missiles.

"Our scientists have shot down a 300-km operational satellite in space, in a low Earth orbit," said Modi. "India has achieved an unprecedented feat today. India has registered its name of space power," he said.

India has had a space program for years and manufactures satellites to take terrestrial images and launch facilities as a cheaper alternative to Western programs.
He successfully sent a low cost probe to Mars in 2014 and plans to complete his first manned mission in 2022.

The government said the trial, conducted from an island on the east coast of India and lasting three minutes, was aimed at protecting the country's badets against foreign attacks.

"The ability obtained through the ASAT test is a credible deterrent against long-range missile threats to our expanding space resources, as well as the proliferation of missile types and numbers," said the Ministry of Defense. Foreign Affairs. Indian in a statement.

The Foreign Ministry of China said that he hoped that all countries "could seriously protect the peace and tranquility sustainable in the space". The United States and Russia refused to comment immediately and the Indian rival, Pakistan, has not reacted either.

Reuters Agency