Washington / Moscow – Russia provokes the world community again and endangers the lives of astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) by testing an anti-satellite missile!
Russia tested an anti-satellite direct-ascending missile (DA-ASAT) last Sunday, which hit a Russian satellite and created a debris field in low-earth orbit. The test has produced more than 1,500 trackable debris to date, according to the US Forces Space Command, and is likely to produce hundreds of thousands of smaller orbital debris.
Presumably, these would ultimately crumble into hundreds of thousands of smaller debris and, according to the US government, “remain in orbit for years and possibly decades”. This means “a significant risk for the crew of the International Space Station and other manned space activities as well as for the satellites of several countries”.
The US government accuses Russia of having endangered the safety of the ISS crew. “We condemn Russia’s ruthless test,” said US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Monday evening (local time). The bombardment of a Russian satellite produced space junk “which endangers the lives of astronauts, the integrity of the international space station and the interests of all nations”.
The German astronaut Matthias Maurer is currently on the ISS. For him and his colleagues it was getting tricky because of the debris flying around!
Because of a possible collision with space debris, the ISS was briefly cleared twice on Monday. According to the Russian state agency Tass, the cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov said that the seven space travelers had in both cases escaped to safety in two spaceships docked at the station.
According to the European Space Agency Esa, Maurer switched to the “Crew Dragon” with which the Saarlander had only reached the outpost of humanity on Friday last week. In the event of a collision, the crew could have flown back to Earth so quickly.
“Russia has shown that it deliberately disregards the security, protection, stability and long-term sustainability of space for all nations,” criticized US General James Dickinson. “Russia is developing and deploying capabilities to actively deny the United States and its allies and partners access to and use of space.”