spacetoday.net: Iridium and Russian satellites collide in orbit

Posted: Wed, Feb 11, 2009, 10:30 PM ET (0330 GMT)
Iridium satellite illustration (Iridium)

A commercial communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite collided in low Earth orbit on Tuesday, creating clouds of debris that could pose a hazard to other spacecraft. An Iridium satellite and the Russian Kosmos 2251 spacecraft collided shortly before 12:00 pm EST (1700 GMT) Tuesday about 790 kilometers above Siberia, according to NASA officials. The collision was only noticed after the US Space Surveillance Network detected the debris clouds where the satellites had been, and after Iridium lost contact with their satellite. The collision is considered the worst ever between two spacecraft; there had been collisions between spacecraft and smaller debris objects in the past, but never before had two relatively large spacecraft run into one another. Iridium operates a network of 66 low Earth orbit spacecraft, plus a number of on-orbit spares, to provide global phone and data services; company officials said a spare spacecraft would be activated within the next 30 days to replace the destroyed spacecraft. NASA orbital debris experts are monitoring the debris cloud to see if it will pose a threat to the International Space Station or other spacecraft in orbit.