Russian space agency Roscosmos to initiate talks on banning anti-satellite weapon tests

Russia’s state space corporation plans to initiate international negotiations on banning full-scale tests of anti-satellite weapons, Roscosmos chief Dmitry Rogozin said on Friday.

Roscosmos plans to initiate such talks “with the aim of banning full-scale anti-satellite weapon tests held by way of destroying spacecraft and littering low orbits,” Rogozin said in Korolyov, Moscow Region. He said he was concerned about these tests as satellite fragments “may destroy the station,” TASS reports.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on March 27 that India’s military had successfully tested its own anti-satellite weapon to hit a satellite in a low near-Earth orbit.

Senior assistant to the section chief at Russia’s Space Situation Reconnaissance Center Roman Fattakhov later said that India’s anti-satellite weapon test had caused the space apparatus’ destruction and produced more than 100 fragments that might endanger the International Space Station.