India Shot Down a Satellite

(AGI simulation of the intercept)

At a little over 11.10am Wednesday, a 13 metre-long, 19-ton missile took off from the Dr APJ Abdul Kalam Island launch complex off the coast of Odisha. Three minutes and 10 seconds later, it struck the 6,900mm-wide heart of a Microstat-R satellite — orbiting 268km above the earth — over the Bay of Bengal, blowing it to bits. India launched the satellite almost two months ago to the day, on January 29.

A little over an hour later, at 12.20 pm, after a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a rare address to the nation that with the success of Mission Shakti, India had become only the fourth member of an exclusive club of nations — with the US, Russia and China — to have anti-satellite missile capability.

Soon after the missile struck the satellite, Modi and national security adviser Ajit Doval were informed by Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO) chief Satheesh Reddy and Indian Space Research Organisation (Isro) chief K Sivan over the phone, using a pre-decided coded message.

link.

2nd link.

Jane's weighs in.  As does Space News.

The US military was immediately aware of India's test.

Reuters factbox.

India claims the test was deter others from attacking its sats.

PM Modi hailed the test as proof of India's military prowess.

India's election commission is investigating if the test was actually an election ploy.

Some companies are condemning the test.

India's test was rather different than China's.

The Indian project was called "Project XSV-1" and India has been working on it for at least 31 months.

Launch to kill was 168 seconds, supposedly.