A U.S. satellite just lately experienced a close contact with a Russian spacecraft, narrowly steering clear of a collision by just 10 meters—an incident that only arrived to light right after occurring on February 28. This alarming near-pass up was a concern for NASA, particularly since of the prospective threat particles from these types of an incident could pose to the Intercontinental Room Station (ISS) and its crew.
Colonel Pam Melroy, NASA’s deputy administrator, expressed her shock and issue at a House Symposium hosted by the Room Basis, highlighting the critical danger posed by debris in room. She mentioned that particles ensuing from satellite collisions can travel at speeds of 10,000 miles per hour, able of seriously harmful other spacecraft and endangering human lives.
The incident concerned the non-maneuverable NASA Timed satellite and the defunct Russian spy satellite Cosmos 2221. “On February 28, these two satellites came unexpectedly near to every other, inside of a distance shorter than from me to the front row right here,” Melroy recounted. The opportunity collision could have produced a lot of superior-speed particles fragments, posing a prolonged risk to place operations.
This episode underscores the broader situation of area congestion. At this time, Earth’s orbit hosts more than 10,000 satellites, a selection that has quadrupled considering the fact that 2019. With around 400,000 much more satellites approved for deployment into reduced Earth orbit and SpaceX’s designs to include a further 44,000 satellites for its Starlink online community, the danger of collisions in area is starting to be ever more sizeable.
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