India will ask US how it killed spy-sat

India will formally ask the United States to explain the dynamics of its successful satellite killing when space faring nations meet in Moscow on April 15 and 16 for a crucial meeting of the Inter Agency Space Debris Co-ordination Committee.

"They just had a 10-second window for the shot.And the precision with which they did it deserves praise. But we're interested to know how such high levels of accuracy could be attained, given the fact the killer was launched from a ship anchored in the choppy North Pacific," an ISRO source told Express.

Unlike the earlier event when the US brought down a Gama-Ray satellite, this script was not discussed with members of the IADC, including Europe, Russia, China and Israel. "ISRO provided some assistance in tracking the Gama Ray sat. But this time we weren't asked for any help," the source said.

India has given full marks to the US decision as the "kill was made at a low orbit". This reduces the possibility of a large number of particles remaining in orbit and posing a threat to other satellites and future missions. Sources pointed out that a similar Chinese operation, when a satellite was killed at a higher orbit of 850 km using a land-based missile, left more than 2,800 particles.

"The US experiment has left few particles and they too will re-enter and burn up within 48 hours to 40 days," pointed out Dr V Adimoorthy, Assistant Director of VSSC and Indian representative at the

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