The US Administration has decided to implement a unilateral ban on the testing of anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons. The announcement today by Vice President Kamala Harris, who is also the Chairman of the Space Council, is a first of its kind and calls on the global community to follow suit to ensure sustainable and responsible use of space.
“The destruction of space objects through direct-ascent ASAT missile testing is reckless and irresponsible,” according to a White House statement released today.
The pledge also comes ahead of the first talks on “reducing space threats” to be held by the United Nations Open-Ended Working Group in Geneva beginning the May 9.
Space debris is a growing concern, and ASAT activities only make the situation worse. Russia invited international uproar last November when it conducted a missile test targeting an old space satellite, that created over 1,500 trackable pieces of debris.
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Sustainability of space
Last week, Planet, one of the largest private satellite operators in the world, had called on President Joe Biden to lead an international effort to prohibit the use of debris-creating ASATs. US policymakers, including Defense officials, had already hinted their support for such a policy ensuring responsible space behavior.
With the number of rocket launches and satellites in orbit reaching a peak in 2021, the chances of collision with active satellites or the International Space Station has also increased. The space debris problem is so bad that it would continue to be a “formidable problem” even if legally binding international guidelines were set and were 100 percent complied to, a new Pentagon report states.
As of January 2022, there were over 25,000 objects of at least 10 cm in size that could be tracked and cataloged. However, the primary risk to a spacecraft is from uncataloged lethal nontrackable debris (LNT). These are objects between 5 mm and 10 cm, and anywhere between 600,000 and 900,000 pieces of LNTs are estimated to exist in the LEO.
Prior to 2007, most debris came from explosions of upper stages of satellite launch vehicles. But, according to the Pentagon report, nearly 50 percent of all cataloged debris today are fragments from three major events – “China’s destruction of its own defunct weather satellite in 2007, the accidental collision between a US communications satellite and a dead Russian satellite in 2009, and the 2021 Russian Nudol ASAT test”. The United States conducted its last anti-satellite test back in 2008.
The report also notes there are approximately 1,300 pieces of debris larger than a car, and these objects pass each other at a close distance dangerously often. Some pass within 1 km of each other monthly at a speed of 10-15 km per second.
A collision with any of these pieces can damage or even destroy a satellite, crewed spacecraft or the ISS. The cost of any maneuver adds fuel cost and operational complexity, while shortening lifespan of spacecraft. Between 1998 and 2022, the ISS, had to make at least 30 maneuvers to avoid collisions.
It’s now time that there is a formal agreement by the global community to ban anti-satellite testing by bringing it under the purview of a global body like the United Nations perhaps.
But doing that will not be an easy task.
