Washington: US Vice President Kamala Harris has declared that the country will no longer conduct destructive, direct ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile testing to reduce space debris and safeguard satellites in low-Earth orbit.

US Vice President in a statement on Monday late night said that calling on other nations to make similar commitments and to work together in establishing this as a norm, that such efforts benefit all countries. The US is the first nation to make such a declaration, she said in her address at the Vandenberg Space Force Base in California.
The destruction of space objects through direct-ascent ASAT missile testing is reckless and irresponsible. The commitment addresses one of the most pressing threats to the security and sustainability of space, as demonstrated by Russia’s November 2021 destructive direct ascent ASAT missile test.

She emphasized the long-lived debris created by these tests now threaten satellites and other space objects that are vital to all nations’ security, economic, and scientific interests, and increases risk to astronauts in space. The Biden-Harris Administration had made clear that the US will engage the international community to uphold and strengthen a rules-based international order for space.