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  • US and Russian satellites collide

    http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/509cfc44-f...077b07658.html

    A Russian military satellite and US commercial satellite have collided in space, creating debris that poses a potential threat to other spacecraft, including the International Space Station.

    US and Russian officials yesterday confirmed that the satellites - an Iridium communications spacecraft and a Russian Kosmos-2251 military satellite - collided at about noon GMT on Tuesday. The first known example of a satellite collision in space occurred about 800km above Siberia in the lower earth atmosphere.

    The collision has raised concerns about potential hazards to other satellites, particularly because it occurred at a busy altitude for satellites, which are used for military and commercial purposes. The US is also assessing whether the debris could pose a threat to the astronauts on the International Space Station.

    Meanwhile, the Interfax news agency cited an anonymous Russian expert "in the military rocketry field" saying that the debris could threaten old USA designation naval reconnaissance satellites with nuclear reactors on board.

    "After the collision, the remains of the two apparatuses would fly off in different directions, including upwards, where there are 'buried' old soviet observation satellites . . . fitted with nuclear reactors," he said.

    The US Joint Space Operations Center is monitoring 500-600 pieces of debris to determine whether other objects in space are at risk. It is expected to produce an initial report today.

    Major Regina Winchester, a spokeswoman for US Strategic Command, said Iridium notified the US military on Tuesday that it had lost contact with one of its satellites. Shortly afterwards, surveillance equipment detected new objects in space that suggested there had been a collision. Russian and US officials said the Russian satellite was non-operational.

    An expert quoted by Itar Tass, the official Russian news agency, said the debris posed no danger for those on the ground, as it was very small and would burn completely on re-entering the earth's atmosphere.

    It was unclear yesterday why the US and Russian satellites collided. One expert questioned why the Iridium satellite had not manoeuvred to avoid the defunct Russian satellite.

    "The American Iridium apparatus, unlike the Russian satellite, had an engine and enough fuel supply. It is unknown why the American satellite did not manoeuvre upon coming into the vicinity of the Russian satellite," said Igor Lisov, a Russia-based expert on space rockets.

    "Perhaps the company Iridium did not receive the warning of the probability of a collision, or perhaps they ignored it. The fact is, however, that the American satellite could have been moved to avoid the collision and for some reason it wasn't."

    Mr Lisov said that, in the past 10 years, evasive manoeuvres had to be taken seven times to avoid collisions in orbit.

    Liz DeCastro, a spokeswoman for Iridium, confirmed that the company had lost contact with the satellite but said the event "is not the result of a failure on the part of Iridium or its technology".

    The collision has produced new concerns about debris in space. The US tracks about 18,000 objects in space, including 800 satellites operated by more than 40 countries, and various kinds of debris.

    Countries around the world condemned China in 2007 after the People's Liberation Army conducted an anti-satellite test. The destruction of an ageing Chinese weather satellite created thousands of pieces of debris that could take decades to decay because of the satellite's altitude upon destruction.

    Maj Winchester said the US was still tracking more than 2,200 pieces of debris from the Chinese test. The US also generated space debris last February when it shot down a malfunctioning spy satellite. At the time, the Pentagon stressed that the debris would pose little danger because of the low altitude at which the satellite was destroyed over Hawaii.

    The US military said the destruction of its satellite produced 3,000 pieces of debris. More than half of the debris entered the earth's atmosphere within 45 minutes. Maj Winchester said every piece of debris had decayed.

    Referring to the collision, Russian Major General Alexsander Yakushin said yesterday: "On the 10th of February at 19:56 Moscow time at an orbit of 800km American satellite Iridium-32 collided with a Russian military satellite Kosmos-2251."

    He said the Kosmos class satellite, which was launched in 1993 from the Plesetsk base in Russia, stopped working in 1995.

  • #2
    Imagine what would happen if this collision occurs in the Cold War days.

    Now one of the major worries is the resulting space debris, in spite of what this Major said.

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