Mission Shakti Makes India Space Super Power
India successfully launches anti-satellite missile and becomes a space super power.
On 27th March 2019 in the morning PM Narendra Modi Tweeted that he would be making a very important announcement in the afternoon. He told people to watch this announcement on television, radio or social media. In PM Modi’s speech which was broadcast live the PM said that they had launched an Anti-Satellite (ASAT) missile test named “Mission Shakti”. This test was carried out at 11:00 am on Dr Abdul Kalam Island in the Launch Complex in Odisha.
For this operation, the ASAT weapon successfully destroyed a live satellite in the earth’s orbit. ASAT weapons are missile based systems used to shoot down moving satellites. The name of the satellite which was destroyed was Microsat-R. It was an imaging satellite. This Mission was extremely complicated. The satellite was orbiting the earth at a speed of 300 km/hr. The missile was launched at a very high speed and it hit the target with accurately. This operation was very difficult but it was successfully completed within 3 minutes.
Because of the success of this mission, India has now become a space superpower. PM Modi told the international community, that this weapon would not be used against any country. It will only be used for defence purposes. He said that India is against the use of weapons in space. After USA, Russia and China India became the fourth country to such a technology. Modi said that this will make India’s Defence stronger.
