According to Vice President Kamala Harris, the United States will soon urge other countries to follow its example and stop conducting harmful, debris-producing anti-satellite tests, according a report by Space.com.
Harris made that commitment on behalf of the United States five months ago. On Friday, Sept. 9, at a National Space Council (NSC) gathering at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston, she announced a forthcoming international campaign to abandon destructive anti-satellite tests.
Abandoning Destructive Direct-ascent Anti-satellite Missiles
Harris, who serves as the NSC's chair, said in April that the US would not test destructive direct-ascent anti-satellite missiles, and at the UN General Assembly later this month, their administration will present a resolution encouraging other countries to take the same step.
Massive space junk produced by direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) tests, which utilize missiles to destroy satellites that are already dead or in the process of dying, can make Earth orbit a riskier location for other spacecraft to occupy, as per Space.com.
With its highly denounced ASAT test in November 2021, Russia produced a cloud that has necessitated numerous evasive maneuvers from the International Space Station.
The NSC meeting's discussion of responsible space behavior included the ASAT topic. In an increasingly congested and competitive space environment, Harris and other meeting participants emphasized the significance of developing such behavioral rules and that the US must be a role model for other countries.
Read also : [Do You Know?] There's A 10% Chance Of Space Junk Killing Someone, Especially in the Global South
Next Generation of Space Industry
During the meeting on Friday, NSC members delivered updates on the progress in these areas. Bill Nelson, the administrator of NASA, for instance, discussed the organization's Earth System Observatory initiative, which will use a new set of satellites to examine our globe in various ways.
The next generation of space industry personnel, from engineers to welders, machinists, and other workers, will be trained at each location by commercial space businesses, including SpaceX, Lockheed Martin, Blue Origin, Boeing, Northrop Grumman, and others.
Related Article : NASA's Hubble Space Telescope Captures a Dazzling Starscape That Will Leave You Wonderstruck
This article is owned by Tech Times
Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
