Debris from Russian space missile test poses danger to ISS crew: US

WASHINGTON • An anti-satellite missile test Russia conducted generated a debris field in low-earth orbit that endangered the International Space Station (ISS) and will pose a hazard to space activities for years, US officials said.

The seven-member space station crew - four US astronauts, a German astronaut and two Russian cosmonauts - were directed to take shelter in their docked spaceship capsules for two hours after the test, as a precaution to allow for a quick getaway had it been necessary, Nasa said.

The research lab, orbiting about 402 km above Earth, continued to pass through or near the debris cluster every 90 minutes, but Nasa specialists determined it was safe for the crew to return to the station's interior after the third pass, the agency said. The crew was also ordered to seal off hatches to several modules of the ISS for the time being, according to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.

"Nasa will continue monitoring the debris in the coming days and beyond to ensure the safety of our crew in orbit," Nasa chief Bill Nelson said in the statement.

Experts say the testing of weapons that shatter satellites in orbit poses a space hazard by creating clouds of fragments that can collide with other objects, setting off a chain reaction of projectiles through Earth's orbit.

A message posted on Twitter by the Russian space agency Roscosmos downplayed the danger. "The orbit of the object, which forced the crew today to move into spacecraft according to standard procedures, has moved away from the ISS orbit," it tweeted. "The station is in the green zone."

The direct-ascent anti-satellite missile fired by Russia into one of its own satellites generated more than 1,500 pieces of "trackable orbital debris" and would likely spawn hundreds of thousands of smaller fragments, the US Space Command said in a statement.

"Russia has demonstrated a deliberate disregard for the security, safety, stability and long-term sustainability of the space domain for all nations," space command chief US Army General James Dickinson said.

He added that the debris from the missile test "will continue to pose a threat to activities in outer space for years to come, putting satellites and space missions at risk, as well as forcing more collision avoidance manoeuvres".

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken condemned the missile test as "reckless and irresponsible". At the Pentagon, spokesman John Kirby said the test showed the need to firmly establish norms of behaviour in space.

Mr Nelson said the debris also posed a threat to a separate Chinese space station under construction and the three-member crew of "taikonauts" at that outpost.

The space station, spanning the size of an American football field, has been continuously occupied since November 2000, and is operated by a partnership of five space agencies from 15 countries, including Russia's Roscosmos.

Russia is not the first country to conduct anti-satellite tests in space. The US performed the first such test in 1959, when satellites were rare and new.

In April, Russia carried out another test of an anti-satellite missile as officials say that space will increasingly become an important domain for warfare. In 2019, India shot down one of its own satellites in low-earth orbit with a ground-to-space missile.

These tests have raised questions about the long-term sustainability of space operations essential to commercial activities from telecommunications and weather forecasting to banking and GPS services.

REUTERS