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.
This photograph taken on September 7, 2022, shows Arianespace's Ariane 5 rocket with EUTELSAT Konnect VHTS (Very High Throughput Satellite) satellite onboard lifting up from the launchpad, at the Europes Spaceport, at the Guiana Space Center in Kourou, French Guiana. - The satellite should provide high-speed Internet access throughout Europe, particularly in isolated regions with poor coverage, offering a service comparable to fiber optic networks in terms of performance and costs, as with speed of 500 Gbps it is said to reduce the digital divide on the Old Continent and meet the broadband connectivity needs of fixed and mobile telecommunications networks on land, sea and air.
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.
HOUSTON, TEXAS - SEPTEMBER 08: US Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at the National Baptist Convention on September 08, 2022 in Houston, Texas. The National Baptist Convention was formed in 1886, and gathers church members and leaders from around the country in discussing church evangelism, disaster relief, and funding for education
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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.
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Written by Joaquin Victor Tacla
