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NASA on Tuesday called "terrible thing" India that shot down one of its satellites, which created about 400 orbital debris, endangering the International Space Station (ISS).
NASA's director, Jim Bridenstine, said that some sixty pieces had already been tracked and that 24 of them exceeded the apogee of the ISS.
"It's a terrible and terrible thing to create an event that sends debris and a climax that goes beyond the international space station, and that kind of activity is incompatible with the future of manned spaceflight that we have to see happen," did he declare. at a NASA City Hall here.
"The ASAT test conducted by India last week resulted in about 400 orbital debris," he added.
Bridenstine said all the pieces were not big enough to be tracked and that NASA is currently following objects of 10 centimeters or more.
"Some 60 orbital debris has been spotted to date, 24 of which pose a risk to the International Space Station," he said.
Bridenstine was speaking to employees of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration a few days after Prime Minister Narendra Modi, in a televised speech, had announced that the company was not going to be there. India had shot down a satellite in space with a missile, catapulting the country into an elite club of space powers alongside the United States. Russia and China
Bridenstine is the first senior Trump administration official to speak in public against the ASAT test of India.
"We are in charge of the marketing of low Earth orbit, we need more space activities than ever before in the interest of the human person, that it is about pharmaceutical or 3D printing of human organs to save lives of land or manufacturing capabilities in space that you can not exploit gravitational way, "he said.
"All of these are at risk when this kind of events occur," said Bridenstine, fearing that the Indian ASAT test is likely to cause a proliferation of such activities by other countries.
"When one country does it, others feel obliged to do it too," he said.
"This is unacceptable." NASA must be very clear about its impact, "said NASA's administrator.
He added that NASA "is learning more and more every hour" about this orbital debris field created from the anti-satellite test.
"Last week, we had received an expert evaluation from NASA as well as from the Joint Space Operations Center (part of the US Strategic Command) .It is that risk to the Station international space rose by 44%, "said Bridenstine. .
The risk of small debris resulting from the ASAT test on the ISS increased by 44% over a period of 10 days. "So, the good thing is that it's pretty low in Earth orbit so everything dissipates over time," he told his NASA colleagues.
He said many debris from China's 2007 direct-climb satellite test was still in the air.
"And we are still struggling with this problem.We are still responsible, we as a nation, are responsible for the knowledge of the space situation and the management of space traffic, conjunction analysis for the world. whole, "said Bridenstine.
The United States, he said, do so for free with the money of their taxpayers from an orbital debris field created by another country.
"Why do we do this as a nation? Because it's the right thing to do because we want to preserve the space environment," he said.
According to Bridenstine, the United States is currently tracking about 23,000 orbital debris measuring 10 centimeters or more.
"At the end of the day, we have to be clear to everyone in the world, we are the only agency of the federal government to have human lives at stake." And it's not acceptable for us to allow people to create orbital debris areas that endanger our people, "he said.
Bridenstine said that if the risk of the ISS had increased by 44%, the astronauts were still safe.
"The International Space Station is always safe, if we have to maneuver it, we will do it, the likelihood of it happening is low, but in the end we also have to make sure that these activities are not sustainable or compatible with human spaceflight, "he said.
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