[dugluak]

Being the 4th nation to do this is tremendous achievement, being not acknowledged by PM would have been a bigger news.

[garmaine]

These tests ought to be banned by international agreements. This is not an achievement for anybody. It is a travesty.

[z3phyr]

Then everybody will do it secretly. It's only a travesty when someone starts it; other people have the right to respond to parity with their own.

[garmaine]

There's no way to secretly test these weapons.

To be clear, I'm not objecting to the weapons existence. I'm objecting to the tests, which are potentially worse than above-ground nuclear testing. The kessler syndrome, if realized, would permanently destroy our ability to deploy, access, and use space resources.

[z3phyr]

It 300km in low earth orbit. Press briefing said that the debris will re-enter the atmosphere within a week.

[dugluak]

How many tests did US conduct since 1950s?

[garmaine]

Anti-satellite weapon tests? Only twice. Once in 1985, which was internationally condemned and widely considered a mistake, and once operationally in 2008 to destroy a failed satellite about to re-enter with a full tank of toxic fuel (the debris from this immediately entered the atmosphere).

[bilbo0s]

Wait... what?

So the first, the US, was a travesty, but everyone else is legitimate self-defense?