Chennai, April 6: DRDO Chief G Satheesh Reddy on Saturday held a press briefing on Mission Shakti Project and said that within 45 days, all the debris of India's anti-satellite ASAT test will decay.  In his address, Reddy said India has shown ground-based direct hit deterrence capability, which works for the defence too. "Space has gained importance in the military domain. When a country like India has done an exercise like this and shown capability of interception of a target, you have shown the capability for such operations. Best way of defence is to have deterrence", Reddy said. NASA Calls Mission Shakti 'Terrible Thing'. 

Taking a jibe at senior Congress leader P Chidambaram's statement on Mission Shakti, the DRDO Chief said, mission of this nature after a test is conducted can’t be kept secret. "The satellite is tracked by many stations across the world. All necessary permissions were taken", Reddy added.  On March 30, Chidambaram had taken a dig at Prime Minister Narendra Modi for announcing that India had demonstrated anti-satellite missile capability, saying only a 'foolish government' would make such a disclosure and "betray" a defence secret.China Reacts to India’s Anti-Satellite Missile Test, Says ‘Hope India Will Safeguard Peace in Outer Space’.

After NASA warned of the danger the debris posed, Pentagon, on Thursday, downplayed the threat and said that debris from an Indian A-SAT weapons test would eventually burn up in the atmosphere. In March, the Pentagon had said it is tracking 250-270 objects of debris in the space generated due to India's anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test in lower earth orbit, but the International Space Station or ISS is not at risk.

WATCH: DRDO Releases Presentation on Mission Shakti

Earlier this month, the chief of NASA had said, India shooting down of one of its own satellites was a “terrible thing” as it created about 400 pieces of orbital debris. NASA had warned that the risk of debris colliding with the International Space Station has risen by 44 per cent since the Indian anti-satellite weapon test. India Becomes Elite Space Power With Successful 'Mission Shakti' Test.

The NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine said about 60 pieces of debris have been tracked so far and out of which 24 are going above the apogee of the International Space Station (ISS). The apogee is the point of the space station’s orbit farthest from the Earth.

Apart from India, only three other countries including the US, Russia and China have anti-satellite missile (ASAT) capabilities. On March 27, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that India has achieved a “historic feat” by shooting down its own low-orbit satellite with a ground-to-space missile, making the country a “space power.”

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Apr 06, 2019 04:16 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).