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With the shooting down of its own decrypt Chinese satellite,
China has yet again surprised observers worldwide and has
served notice that it is in the same league of US and Russia.
Not much was heard about anti-satellite weaponry since the
shooting down of the satellite by an Anti-satellite Weapon
(ASAT ) launched by an F 15 from the USAF some decades ago.
It is clear that the space again would be an arena in which
the big powers would compete for leadership and control.
This does not augur well for the peaceful exploitation of
space. This paper seeks to examine the issues that have
arisen as a result of the Chinese test, which appears to
portend danger to the rest of the world. While on the one
hand China is concentrating on its peaceful rise, on the
other hand it is doing everything within its control to
ensure that it does not lag behind US and Russia in military
as well as economic superiority. The said launch and the
newly acquired capability, coupled with high military spending
, are intended to insure China from any American, attacks
over Taiwan. This paper also examines the impact of the
Chinese action on the Indian Space program and its efforts
towards having a manned mission to `Chandrayan'. Both the
aspects of peaceful and military use of space are examined,
with appropriate recommendation for preventing the militarization
of outer space.
On January 10, 2007, Indian Space Research Organization
(ISRO) launched a Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)
with a new payload that was to pave the way for the use
of reusable vehicles. This was called the Space Capsule
Recovery Experiment (SRE-1). The SRE weighed 550 kgs and
was at an altitude of 637 kilometers awaiting re-entry instructions.
As if being prompted, of course by a coincidence, China
next day brought down its own decrypt weather satellite
FY-1C that was in space at about 865 kilometers for over
15 years by a ballistic missile that destroyed the satellite
on kinetic impact. The Chinese do have a penchant for conveying
the right message at the right time. Was this planned or
was it a mere coincidence? Whether there was a message or
not in the Chinese action, in addition to militarization
of the outer space, the action left thousands of debris
in outer space posing hazard to anything that moves close
to the debris for many years. While there are thousands
of debris in the space, on the ground it has woken up many
a nation from the slumber.
The Indian SRE-1 was of course not intended to be targeted
by the Chinese and is a success story with it being recovered
by the Coast Guard Helicopter about 140 kilometers from
the launch site. The successful recovery no doubt has added
another feather in the cap of the scientists who worked
hard to make this a reality. The recovery of a capsule from
space, on re-entry would generate enormous heat due to the
friction on re-entry. In addition, there were complex manoeuvres
and intelligent computer program applications that needed
to be integrated to ensure that the trajectory at different
stages of the mission was compliant with that desired. A
successful mission entailed not just the withstanding of
the heat by the capsule which was specifically designed
and built to prove specifications but also timely and correct
deployment of the parachute systems to slow down the descent
and make an accurate splash in the selected area. There
was also a need for the wet capsule to be recovered without
damaging the capsule. The fact that many exercises were
conducted with the Indian Coast Guard units to establish
Standard Operating Procedures in the past off the Eastern
Coast of India obviously helped in the final recovery of
the capsule. As India is planning the `Chandrayaan' and
the manned mission to moon, this experiment is indeed important
in our planned conquest.
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