Star Wars is no longer just George Lucas’s : Putin’s Russia has carried out a test with an anti-satellite missile that ended in the destruction of one of his orbiting satellite, which generated a large cloud of debris that endangered the International Space Station (ISS) and forced the astronauts living there to move to adjacent spacecraft.
Russia on Tuesday admitted to destroying one of its satellites during a space missile test, but rejected the US accusation of endangering the crew of the International Space Station.
US officials on Monday accused Russia of carrying out a “dangerous and irresponsible” act that created a cloud of debris and forced the crew of the International Space Station (ISS) to take evasive action.
“The Russian Defense Ministry successfully carried out a test, as a result of which the spacecraft ‘Tselina-D’, which has been in orbit since 1982, was destroyed,” the Russian army said in a statement.
Russian Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu later declared that a “promising” system was used that hit the mark with “precision”.
“The fragments that formed do not pose any threat to space activity,” he added, quoted by Russian news agencies.
US officials said they were not informed in advance of the test, which generated more than 1,500 pieces of traceable orbital debris.
US Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Monday that the debris cloud would threaten space activities “for decades.”
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on Tuesday described the test as “reckless” and “disturbing”.
“It shows that Russia is developing new weapons systems that can shoot down satellites,” he told a meeting with EU defense ministers.
French Defense Minister Florence Parly charged on Twitter against “space looters” who generate “debris that pollutes and endangers our astronauts and satellites.”
The Russian military said it was carrying out planned activities to strengthen its defense capabilities, but denied that the test was dangerous.
“The United States knows with certainty that the resulting fragments … did not and will not pose a threat to orbital stations, spacecraft and space activities,” he said.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the accusations of the United States “hypocritical” that, along with China and India, were the only countries to have launched space missiles so far.
“To declare that the Russian Federation created risks for the civilian exploitation of space is hypocritical to say the least. There is no fact in this regard, “Lavrov said. NASA said the crew aboard the ISS, four Americans, one German and two Russians , had to take refuge in their return ships.
Russia’s space agency Roscosmos said its “automated dangerous situation alert system” continued to “monitor the situation to prevent and counter all possible threats to the security of the International Space Station and its crew.”
“For us, the top priority has been and continues to be ensuring the unconditional safety of the crew,” Roscosmos said in a statement.
“Destabilizing”
According to the Russian public press agency TASS, NASA officials will talk with the director of Roscosmos, Dmitri Rogozin. NASA chief Bill Nelson said Monday that he was “outraged” by this “irresponsible and destabilizing” act.
The incident rekindled fears of seeing space transformed into a battlefield between great powers, eager to experiment with new military technologies. Until now, Moscow had raised its voice against any attempt to militarize space, where only the United States, China and India had conducted anti-satellite missile tests.
However, Russian military expert Pavel Felgenhauer told AFP that Moscow had never hidden that it had systems capable of reaching space from Earth.
These include the S-500 and S-550 defense systems, capable according to the army of reducing satellites to rubble, he said.
“Russia has always said that it was against the deployment of weapons in space, but not that it was against the use of weapons in space,” says the expert from the newspaper Novaya Gazeta, noting that there is no “formal” ban on this. type of weaponry in international law.
For its part, NATO on Tuesday denounced Russia’s “irresponsible” action by destroying one of its own satellites during practices, which has created a risk for astronauts on the International Space Station and the Chinese space station.
«It is an irresponsible action to destroy a satellite in tests. NATO has developed a space policy not only to address space issues, but because it is also important for navigation and communications on Earth, “said NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg on arrival at the ministerial meeting. Defense of the EU.
