NASA Isn't Happy About India's Space Test

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine says India's space test put lives at risk.

Transcript

00:00It's unacceptable, and NASA needs to be very clear about what its impact to us is.

00:17The risk to the International Space Station was increased by 44 percent.

00:22But at the end of the day, we need to be clear with everybody in the world,

00:27we're the only agency in the federal government that has human lives at stake here.

00:32And it is not acceptable for us to allow people to create orbital debris fields that put at risk our people.

00:38So the good thing is, it's low enough in Earth orbit that over time, this will all dissipate.

00:44Here's what we know about the most recent direct ascent anti-satellite test that was done by India.

00:50We know that we have identified 400 pieces of orbital debris from that one event.

00:57That's what's been identified. Now all of that cannot be tracked.

01:02What we are tracking right now, objects big enough to track, we're talking about 10 centimeters or bigger,

01:08about 60 pieces have been tracked.

01:12We are charged with commercializing low Earth orbit.

01:15We are charged with enabling more activities in space than we've ever seen before for the purpose of benefiting the human condition,

01:22whether it's pharmaceuticals or printing human organs in 3D to save lives here on Earth,

01:28or manufacturing capabilities in space that you're not able to do in a gravity well.

01:35All of those are placed at risk when these kind of events happen.

01:39And when one country does it, then other countries feel like they have to do it as well.

01:43It's unacceptable, and NASA needs to be very clear about what its impact to us is.