India has become the fourth nation to join an elite space power league with its first test of an anti-satellite (A-SAT) missile. In an operation called "Mission Shakti", India's defence research development organisation (DRDO) used an anti-satellite missile to successfully target a live satellite on a low earth orbit. The other three nations to have achieved this feat are United States, Russia and China. India's A-SAT programme was publicly acknowledged in 2012. Five years after China conducted an anti-satellite test. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who announced the details of Mission Shakti, said that a demonstration of India's military prowess in space was necessary for regional peace. Former DRDO chief Vijay Kumar Saraswat, who is now a member of the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI) Aayog shared his views and outlook.