COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo.-
China’s anti-satellite test in January approximately doubled the debris hazard to the international space station for several weeks, NASA administrator Michael Griffin said Thursday.
Griffin, speaking to reporters at the National Space Symposium, said the debris has dispersed to levels considered indistinguishable from the background.
In the test, a Chinese missile destroyed an old Chinese weather satellite.
Griffin also addressed a variety of other topics, including the growing opportunities for commercial space companies as the U.S. returns to the moon and the importance of having U.S. hardware going between Earth and the moon.
“Would the U.S. want to put its maritime needs in the hands of any other nation?” he asked. “The answer would be no. I see nothing different about space.”
