ISS Astronauts had to confine themselves to emergency evacuation vessels on Monday, as the station found itself threatened by space debris, AFP reports.
In the process, the United States accused Russia of being the source of the debris that threatened the ISS astronauts after the test-firing of a missile at an old Soviet satellite, the report added.
The incident according to the report by AFP, happened on Monday morning, where the ISS astronauts about seven of them who are currently onboard the International Space Station (ISS), four American astronauts, a German and two Russian cosmonauts, had to take refuge in their ships moored at the station in order to prepare for a possible evacuation of emergency.
The United States while reacting to the incident accused Russia of firing a “dangerous and irresponsible” anti-satellite missile, in a show of force that directly threatened the safety of the ISS astronauts.
“Earlier today, Russia irresponsibly conducted a destructive direct-ascension anti-satellite missile test against one of its own satellites,” State Department spokesman Ned Price said. American. The boss of NASA said Monday he was “scandalized”.
The report also added that the incident rekindles fears that space will turn into a battleground between the great powers. According to Ned Price, this action “generated more than 1,500 traceable orbital debris, and hundreds of thousands of smaller pieces of orbital debris which now threaten the interests of all nations.”
According to the specialized media Spaceflight Now, they had all returned inside the ISS by midday Monday, but many hatches remained closed between the various modules as a precaution.
Earlier, the Russian space agency Roscosmos had declared the astronauts aboard the ISS out of danger, without mentioning a missile test.
“The object’s orbit, which forced the crew today to travel to the spacecraft using standard procedures, has moved away from the orbit of the ISS,” Roscosmos tweeted. “Friends, everything is in order with us. We are continuing the work according to our program,” Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov also said on Twitter.
An “absolutely unnecessary” shot?
The Pentagon said it was “actively working to characterize the debris field.” This involves in particular identifying the trajectory of each of the objects. “We are looking closely at the type of means that Russia seems to want to develop,” added John Kirby, the Pentagon spokesman, adding that Moscow had not warned Washington in advance.
Anti-satellite fire has already been carried out by only four nations (United States, China, India and Russia). But they are highly criticized, in particular because of the large amount of debris generated, which then becomes dangerous projectiles. They may subsequently strike the many other satellites in orbit, on which countries rely for a large number of activities, for example communication or even localization.
According to astronomer Jonathan McDowell, by deducing the trajectories of the ISS and nearby objects, the satellite targeted by Russia could be a satellite named Cosmos 1408, which has not been active since the 1980s. “Destroy it n ‘was absolutely not necessary, “he said. “This is purely a military test.” “We already have too much debris up there to deliberately generate more, it is inexcusable”, he adds
For Jonathan McDowell, some debris caused by this test will disintegrate on entering the atmosphere “in the coming months “, but others could stay in orbit for up to ten years.