Moscow. November 20. INTERFAX - Russia needs to have its own anti-satellite weapons, said the head of Roscosmos Dmitry Rogozin.
"The creation of anti-satellite weapons is an obvious thing that Russia must possess," Rogozin said on the YouTube channel "Solovyov Live" on Saturday.
On November 15, the US Space Command reported that Russia had shot down the Soviet satellite Kosmos-1408 with a rocket during an anti-satellite weapon test.
State Department spokesman Ned Price said the Russian test led to the appearance of space debris, which posed a threat to the crew of the International Space Station. The US said that Russia had not warned about the tests.
On Tuesday, Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu said that the Russian military had conducted tests of anti-satellite weapons, but noted that they do not pose a threat to spacecraft.
"We have really successfully tested a promising system. She struck the old satellite with jewelry. The fragments formed do not pose any threat to space activities," Shoigu said, answering journalists' questions during a trip to the Voronezh Region.
The Russian Defense Ministry also stressed that the fragments formed after the destruction of the satellite do not pose a threat to the ISS. According to the military department, an inactive Tselina-D spacecraft was destroyed during the tests.
"Previously, similar tests in outer space have already been conducted by the United States, China and India," the Russian military noted.
Roscosmos announced the monitoring of the situation in orbit to protect the ISS against the background of US statements about Russian tests of anti-satellite weapons.
"The Russian Automated System for the Prevention of Dangerous Situations in near-Earth Outer Space (ASPOS OKP) continues to monitor the situation in order to prevent and fend off all possible threats to the safety of the International Space Station and its crew," the message says. The state corporation also stated that the safety of the ISS crew is a priority for Roscosmos.
According to an Interfax source in the space industry, Russian tracking systems do not currently detect any threats to the ISS from space debris.
Over the past few years, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation has reported successful tests of a new missile defense system at the Sary-Shagan test site (Kazakhstan). In particular, this year such launches, according to the Russian Defense Ministry, were carried out on September 17 and April 26.
Earlier, the US Space Command said that this new Russian anti-missile poses a challenge to US interests in near-Earth space. According to the US military, this Russian system is capable of destroying satellites in low orbit.
In July 2020, the commander-in-chief of the Russian Aerospace Forces, Sergei Surovikin, announced that Moscow's missile defense system would be strengthened with new anti-missiles.
