Russian Satellite and Iridium Satellite Collide in Orbit

[American Horse]

Feb. 11 (Bloomberg) "-- An Iridium World Communications Inc. satellite collided with a Russian satellite in space yesterday, creating a cloud of wreckage, CBS News reported.

Iridium’s satellites orbit at about 485 miles (780 kilometers) above the Earth’s surface, while the International Space Station orbits at 215 miles, according to CBS."


Collisions of Satellites with debris in orbit is one thing, but one-on-one collisions of satellites; I thought was so unlikely as to be almost impossible, and here we have one!

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[Care4all]

frightening....hope the space station is safe....guess that can't be a certainty anymore!

 

[American Horse]

frightening....hope the space station is safe....guess that can't be a certainty anymore!

Good point Care, some of the debris will fall, no doubt scattering as it does, and the ISS is 270 miles lower than the impact point in orbit, so that debris might be accelerating, But these orbital mechanics are very confusing. Even Nasa and space scientists were surprised a while back when a space suit with a communications device was ejected from the ISS. It was pushed lower and backwards, but then it moved ahead caught up and passed the ISS, doing some pretty loopy transits.

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