India shot down one of its satellites in space with an anti-satellite missile on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said, hailing the country's first test of such technology as a major breakthrough that establishes it as a space power. India would only be the fourth country to have used such an anti-satellite weapon after the United States, Russia and China, said Modi, who heads into general elections next month. 'Our scientists shot down a live satellite 300 kilometers away in space, in low-earth orbit,' Modi said in a television broadcast. 'India has made an unprecedented achievement today,' he added, speaking in Hindi. 'India registered its name as a space power.'