Two satellites collide in orbit

Spaceflight Now ^ | February 11, 2009 | WILLIAM HARWOOD

[Names Ash Housewares]

In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a presumably defunct Russian Cosmos satellite ran into each other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage, officials said today.

The international space station does not appear to be threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other military or civilian satellites.

"They collided at an altitude of 790 kilometers (491 miles) over northern Siberia Tuesday about noon Washington time," said Nicholas Johnson, NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The U.S. space surveillance network detected a large number of debris from both objects."

One source said nearly 300 fragments were being tracked, but Johnson said it was not yet clear how much debris was generated.

"It's going to take a while," he said. "It's very, very difficult to discriminate all those objects when they're really close together. And so, over the next couple of days, we'll have a much better understanding. But it's at a minimum, I think we're talking many, many dozens, if not hundreds."

[Names Ash Housewares]

Doh!

[library user]

If nobody’s there to hear it, did it make a sound?

[SIDENET]

That would have been COOL to have seen the collision.

[Joiseydude]

a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a presumably defunct Russian Cosmos satellite ran into each other

Accidently or intentionally?

[Names Ash Housewares]

First thought...

Was it really a collision? or an interception?

Do they know for sure the russian satellite was “defunct”?

[SIDENET]

If nobody’s there to hear it, did it make a sound?

"In space, no one can hear your scream."

[No Truce With Kings]

“That would have been COOL to have seen the collision.”

Talk about the ultimate Iridium flare!

[Pearls Before Swine]

If nobody’s there to hear it, did it make a sound?

No atmosphere, no sound, regardless of whether or not any ears or mikes are in the vicinity.

[theDentist]

Anyone else get the feeling this was not accidental, but instead a test in case they need to take a satellite out of service but have no rocket or laser to do it? Or have I read too many Tom Clancy novels?

[SIDENET]

your = you

Geez, I can't even get a movie quote right.

[Moonman62]

I wish I could have seen it too, but there’s no way this is an accident. Not from the drunken slobs in Russia over their territory.

[max americana]

Don’t worry. Algore will try to tell us that we are all going to die from the debris.

[library user]

This got moved to the chatroom in a hurry.

[sticker]

Tunguska the sequel ?

[Steve Van Doorn]

This is bound to happen and the more stuff out there the worse it will be.

I really hope we don’t rely to much on satellites if there is ever a major war. The Chinese would just intentionally spread debris everyplace.

[Names Ash Housewares]

Yes. Annoying.

After Georgia, this is NOT “chat”.
And is a very rare event.

[KarlInOhio]

It should be pretty easy for the guys at Space Command to tell if the Russians made a change in orbit. I don't know how much the Iridium can change its orbit, but unless there is evidence otherwise it looks like the Iridium will be cited.

[ThomasThomas]

**If nobody’s there to hear it, did it make a sound?**

Can you have sound with out an atmosphere?

[John W]

Thats brilliant. Hopefully the day we get a city nuked it can avoid chat for the first hour or so. With some of today’s mods, the 9/11 threads would have went to chat between 8:45 and 9:02 AM ET.