Using a live satellite in Low Earth Orbit (LEO) as target practice, India successfully tested an anti-satellite weapon, or A-SAT, today. This show of force has put India alongside the United States, Russia, and China in an elite club of space superpowers. And while there is no doubt that the indigenous feat is an important technological breakthrough for India, there is an important question that nobody seems to be asking: How worried should we be about the space debris created by the satellite we blew up?
When China demonstrated the prowess of its anti-satellite missile in 2007 by shooting down a weather spacecraft, FengYun 1C, the US Orbital Debris Program Office dubbed it as