Last week, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India had now become the fourth country to successfully use military firepower in space.
NASA has sharply criticized India's missile destruction of a satellite in space, suggesting the test could have damaged the International Space Station.
But speaking to staff Monday, NASA space agency chief Jim Bridenstine said that the risk of debris colliding with the ISS had risen sharply since the test. Bridenstine said the anti-satellite weapon created at least 400 pieces of debris, including 60 fragments that are four inches across or larger. He said 24 of those fragments had ended up in orbits with high points above the 255-mile altitude of the space station.
Last week Shambhu Hakki, a spokesperson for the Indian Embassy in Washington, wrote in an email to CNBC that test was done in the lower atmosphere to mitigate space debris and that any space junk generated will"decay and fall back onto the earth within weeks."
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