Thursday, February 12, 2009
Another dubious first for mankind
The very first collision of man made satellites in earth orbit.
A satellite crash that occurred on Tuesday was the first of its kind, NASA reported Wednesday. Two communications satellites, a privately owned US machine and a presumably defunct Russian Cosmos orbiter, collided over northern Siberia around noon ET.Got to do some cleanup out there.
The crash between the Iridium Corporation's satellite and the Cosmos orbiter resulted in 500 to 600 new pieces of debris going in every direction, crossing the orbits of other satellites. Nicholas Johnson of NASA reported to Reuters, "It takes a while for the debris to spread out and for us to get an accurate head count."
The only manned object constantly in orbit is the International Space Station, at an altitude of 218 miles above Earth. The speed at which a satellite travels means that debris is flung far and wide. Tuesday's collision occurred at 490 miles; Johnson told the New York Times today that he believes there are already objects from the collision that have passed through space station altitude.
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