Washington: Apparently under prodding from the White House, NASA has said it will continue to cooperate with the ISRO, days after the US space agency’s chief criticised India and termed its anti-satellite weapon test a “terrible thing” for creating about 400 pieces of orbital debris.
In a letter to ISRO Chairman K Sivan, NASA Administrator James Bridenstine said: “based on the guidance received from the White House”, he looks forward to continuing to work with ISRO on a host of issues including human space flights.
“As part of our partnership with you, we will continue to work on issues using the NASA-ISRO Human Space Flight Working Group, Planetary Science Working Group, US India Earth Science Working Group and the Heliophysics Working Group,” Bridenstine said.
No threat to ISS
Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) Chairman G. Satheesh Reddy said on Saturday that there was no possibility of debris from the anti-satellite (ASAT) test conducted by India on March 27 hitting the International Space Station (ISS).
He said there were chances of some debris going up but since 10 days have passed since the launch, there was no possibility of it posing any threat to the ISS. The risk analysis simulation based on an internationally accepted software also showed that there was no threat to the space station. (Agencies)
