The U.S. Department of Commerce said it welcomed the announcement by Vice President Kamala Harris not to conduct destructive, direct-ascent anti-satellite (ASAT) missile tests.
Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves responded to Harris' announcement that the U.S. will not conduct ASAT missile tests in an April 19 news release.
“Space should be a safe place to operate the thousands of satellites that provide boundless benefits to people around the globe,” Deputy Secretary of State Don Graves said, according to the release. “Previous tests conducted by the Peoples’ Republic of China in 2007 and the Russian Federation in November 2021 created significant debris hazards for all low-earth orbiting satellites.”
The new commitment helps protect the nation’s interests in space, he said in the release. Space-based environmental monitoring platforms are part of that commitment. By meaningfully reducing ASAT testing and debris generation, national security interests and long-term U.S. interests such as space exploration and space-enabled economic development are served.
“Satellites operated by NOAA, and our international mission partners, are our ‘eyes in the sky’,” Graves said, according to the release. “They provide a host of critical environmental information including weather monitoring and forecasting of rapidly developing severe weather events, crucial information on natural disasters such as volcanic eruptions and wildfires, and warnings of geomagnetic storms.”
The information these satellites provide supports forecasts and warnings that give municipalities, emergency managers, businesses, individuals and other decision makes vital data every day, he said in the release.
