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Only if those 'western' countries which care so much about the space and environment clean up their mess first. The mess which is many times more than other cou

Only if those 'western' countries which care so much about the space and environment clean up their mess first. The mess which is many times more than other countries. I'm not saying that these tests are right but the hypocrisy of these western countries is really baffling at times.

forty 5y ago
I'm not sure they were pointing out specifically non western countries. According to the article they linked, the US is one of the 4 countries that did such tests.
- toss1 5y ago
  Yes, and there was a huge qualitative & quantitative difference in the ways in which the the tests were designed & carried out. The US tests were specifically designed to be at altitudes where all debris would quickly de-orbit due to drag. China, OTOH, blasted one of their weather satellites in a much higher orbit - 528mi up - resulting in far higher counts of of high velocity space junk which will orbit for centuries. It was the worst incident of creation of space junk in history [1]. China has since committed to more responsible practices. [1] https://www.space.com/3415-china-anti-satellite-test-worrisome-debris-cloud-circles-earth.html https://www.space.com/3415-china-anti-satellite-test-worriso...
- Xplune13 5y ago
  I wrote the previous comment with respect to the link provided by the original post. It linked the 2019 Indian Test which was done in a manner that the debris would burn in the atmosphere itself within few weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Shakti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Shakti > According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, some debris might persist for a year, but most should burn up in the atmosphere within several weeks. The perceived tone of the original post made me comment the previous comment (which is not only true about ASAT missiles but literally everything else). I'm sorry if my judgement of the original post was wrong.

forty 5y ago

I'm not sure they were pointing out specifically non western countries. According to the article they linked, the US is one of the 4 countries that did such tests.

toss1 5y ago
Yes, and there was a huge qualitative & quantitative difference in the ways in which the the tests were designed & carried out. The US tests were specifically designed to be at altitudes where all debris would quickly de-orbit due to drag. China, OTOH, blasted one of their weather satellites in a much higher orbit - 528mi up - resulting in far higher counts of of high velocity space junk which will orbit for centuries. It was the worst incident of creation of space junk in history [1]. China has since committed to more responsible practices. [1] https://www.space.com/3415-china-anti-satellite-test-worrisome-debris-cloud-circles-earth.html https://www.space.com/3415-china-anti-satellite-test-worriso...
Xplune13 5y ago
I wrote the previous comment with respect to the link provided by the original post. It linked the 2019 Indian Test which was done in a manner that the debris would burn in the atmosphere itself within few weeks. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Shakti https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mission_Shakti > According to Jonathan McDowell, an astrophysicist at Harvard–Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, some debris might persist for a year, but most should burn up in the atmosphere within several weeks. The perceived tone of the original post made me comment the previous comment (which is not only true about ASAT missiles but literally everything else). I'm sorry if my judgement of the original post was wrong.