ISLAMABAD: As the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Nasa) called India’s destruction of a satellite a “terrible, terrible thing”, Pakistan said on Tuesday the act should be a matter of grave concern for the international community because of its ramifications for long-term sustainability of peaceful space activities.

Last week New Delhi destroyed one of its satellites with a missile, a move Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi described as one that established India “as a space power”.

But Nasa Administrator Jim Bridenstine told employees in Washington on Monday that the move posed an “unacceptable” threat to astronauts on board the International Space Station (ISS).

In a statement issued in Islamabad on Tuesday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office expressed concern over reports that some of the space debris created by the recent Anti-Satellite (ASAT) weapon test by India had been pushed above the apogee of the ISS, increasing the risk of collision.

“It would also be amiss to ignore the military dimension of such actions and their implications on the global and regional peace, stability and security,” the FO statement said, adding that Pakistan remained a strong proponent of non-militarisation of outer space.

“We will continue to work with likeminded countries to address gaps in the international legal regime governing the exploration and use of outer space with a view to ensuring that no one threatens peaceful activities and applications of space technologies for socio-economic development.

“In the absence of strong legal instruments, other states could also follow suit by demonstrating such capabilities,” the statement added.

The Nasa administrator said the satellite was shattered into pieces, many of them large enough to pose a danger to the space station but not large enough to track.

“What we are tracking right now, objects big enough to track we’re talking about 10 centimetres or bigger; about 60 pieces have been tracked,” he said.

He said 24 of those pieces were travelling above the ISS, even though the satellite had been orbiting 185 miles above the Earth, lower than the station, which orbits roughly 250 miles above the planet.

Published in Dawn, April 3rd, 2019