NASA tracking risk to International Space Station from 24 pieces

• The amount of Indian space debris may have almost doubled in the aftermath of the Mission Shakti anti-satellite strike but this is still significantly less than the existing space debris generated by China, Russia and the U.S.
• Data from SPACE-TRACK.org, a public access repository maintained by the U.S. defence wing that tracks space activity, notes only 80 pieces of “space debris” attributable to India in orbit.
• This, however, doesn’t include debris from MICROSAT-R, the DRDO satellite that was pulverised by India’s anti-satellite missile.

NASA’s rebuttal

• NASA criticised India for the test, describing it as a “terrible, terrible” thing that had endangered the International Space Station (ISS) and led to the creation of nearly 400 pieces of orbital debris.
• Orbital debris are tracked by a variety of ground-based radar and space stations.
• The speeds at which these objects — between 1mm to 10 cm across — hurtle through space travel makes them extremely dangerous, various studies have showed.

The Hindu