‘They shot down their own satellite’: Ex-official recalls US' shock over India's ASAT missile test

A former US Air Force and intelligence officer recently recalled how India's 2019 anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test caught American officials at the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) off-guard.

David Grusch, who has represented the NRO on the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, claimed that the agency had scrambled to assess the impact of debris and determine whether it could hinder US spy satellites. “They shot down one of their own satellites and they didn't tell us,” Grusch claimed.

According to his account, the former US intelligence officer said he was on duty at the NRO operations centre when the test took place, adding that he contacted the US Embassy while orbital analysts calculated the debris field.

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India conducted Mission Shakti, an anti-satellite missile test, from the Dr A P J Abdul Kalam Island launch complex on March, 2019. With this test, India joined an exclusive group of space faring nations consisting of USA, Russia and China.

What did David Grusch say?

Grusch recalled his account of the the NRO response to Mission Shakti in a podcast with Joe Rogan. “I was on duty in the NRO operations center. Basically there was an unexpected Indian missile test that hit one of their satellites in 2019. I think it was like March of 2019,” he said.

Grusch clarified that India had hit its own “defunct weather satellite…on purpose”. The former US officer further recounted the aftermath of the test at the NRO. “I remember in my office at like all these different phones. I'm like calling the embassy… We were worried at the NRO about the debris, because we fly space, you know, spy satellites,” he said.

Grusch, who said he was the backup director of intelligence as reserve at the operations center and was leading the director's briefing team at the time, said the analysts had to immediately scramble to calculate the debris field. “I'm like going to the orbital analysts on the watch floor with all the crazy screens – like calculate the the debris field, you know, let me know if we have to maneuver something,” he said.

The former intelligence officer said he had to “run up” to the director's office. “I'm like, “holy sh*t.” You know, and it was kind of a big deal. I remember when that went down, it was pretty crazy,” Grusch claimed.

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What we know about ‘Mission Shakti’

Following the test, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said India had demonstrated anti-satellite missile capability by shooting down a live satellite in the low earth orbit, describing it as a rare achievement.

The ‘Mission Shakti’ operation, led by the Defence Research and Development Organisation, was completed successfully within three minutes of launch. He said the action was not directed against any country and the satellite was a pre-determined target orbiting at an altitude of 300 km.

The satellite used in the mission was one of India’s existing satellites operating in lower orbit