Satellite collisions in space could have been avoided. Escalation in space: satellites “accidentally” collided... Collision of satellites space 2251 and iridium 33

ARI - analytical department

Over Siberia, at an altitude of more than 800 km, Russian and American communications satellites collided. This was announced by the official representative of the US National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Kelly Humphreys. According to the information he provided, the collision of telecommunication satellites occurred on Tuesday, February 10, ITAR-TASS reports. We are talking about a Russian satellite, launched in 1993 and considered non-functional, and an American one, which was part of the global Iridium mobile communications system, which belongs to a consortium led by the American company Motorola. The last one was launched into orbit in 1997. Each satellite weighs almost half a ton. From press reports.
From the Soviet Information Bureau: the newest American shuttle crashed after colliding with a meteorite. The crew of the "Meteorite" was presented with government awards. USSR folklore from the 80s.
All through February 12, the TV kept talking about the collision of satellites, commenting on the news in one key: everything was accidental, everything was unexpected, no one thought - and so on and so forth. Even the astronauts were somewhat tense. We, as usual, strained our brains a little. In the Russian intellectual field, it seems, there is no one else. We are alone!
Now the introductory and conclusions are in order:
The area of ​​the Earth is about half a billion square kilometers. The area of ​​a sphere 800 km away from the surface of the planet is about 600 - 800 million square kilometers. Note that satellites and their remnants (space debris) do not fly strictly at an altitude of 800 kilometers, but inside a colossal volume limited below by a sphere of 300 km of orbit, and above by a sphere with a diameter of several thousand kilometers - near-Earth orbits. There are ellipses of orbits, etc. and so on. However, for convenience, we will assume that all movement in space is concentrated strictly at an altitude of 500 - 1000 km, that is, at an altitude of 500 km. For convenience, we will consider 7 meters as the diameter, as well as the length, of a satellite or piece of space debris. And let us also remember the figure announced by NASA of 12,000 fragments - this is the number of satellites, remnants of upper stages and other debris now dangling in orbit. NASA is, of course, talking about a very large volume, the Earth’s orbit in a broad sense, ranging from 300 km to half the distance from the Earth to the Moon, but let us remind you once again: for convenience, we assume that all these 12,000 objects are hanging out at an altitude of 500 to 1000 kilometers. Now let's do division.
We have a surface area of ​​approximately 600,000,000 square kilometers, multiplied by an altitude of 500 kilometers, we get 300 billion cubic kilometers. We have 12,000 satellites (and their debris). The numbers are huge and difficult to comprehend. Let's try to simplify. If we reduce the numbers by a thousand, we get that there are 12 satellites flying in a volume of 300 million cubic kilometers or 2 satellites per 50 million cubic kilometers. Again, outrageous numbers. This is very, very much! It's hard to imagine. Therefore, let’s reduce it further by proportionally dividing the data by 1000. As a result, we get a cubic capacity of kilometers equal to 50 thousand cubic kilometers, and satellite objects with a diameter and length of 7 millimeters (the diameter and length of the satellite divided by the same 1000). If we compare it with real objects, then this is a cube with an area the size of the city of Moscow and a height of 50 kilometers, inside of which two objects the size of a bullet fly.
Now further: The speed of a bullet is 800 meters per second, the speed of objects is 8,000 meters per second (the first cosmic speed), however, for convenience, we will assume that bullets fly at a speed of 800 meters per second. Moreover, they do not fly chaotically, but along the same route, orbit, which is occasionally shifted at the control centers. A purely mathematical question arises: what is the probability of their collision? Look out the window and try to imagine it, taking in the views and expanses of Moscow, look up, maybe you’ll see a plane there, and then take a thimble, compare it to scale and estimate the probability of meeting two such thimbles in this cube.
Without delving too deeply into higher mathematics, we assume that this probability is comparable to the probability of writing “War and Peace” by a group of macaques that were allowed to play with typewriters. If you gave a typewriter to every macaque on every planet and star in our galaxy, according to probability theory, they might accidentally write a novel in 10 billion years or so. Our imaginary bullets are just as likely to collide. If we remember that our cube is actually larger, its volume is thousands of kilometers high, and our bullets fly not 800 meters per second, but 8 km/sec, and in a given orbit - here the monkeys will have to work so hard that The universe doesn't exist that long. So only the dear residents of Kenya will believe in fairy tales about an “accidental” collision; at NASA such a thought would never even occur to anyone. Moreover: for one satellite to hit another, at an angle of 90%, severe mathematics is needed here. It’s like in our case with bullets flying there, hitting one of them with a sniper rifle. It's hard to hit when you're flying, right? And then it’s “by chance,” you know. Here we are about the same thing.
So the collision was far from accidental, and judging by the way they talk about the insidious incident in Rosaviakosmos and related departments, there are suspicions that they organized this “incident”. Although, it may well be that the Americans organized it.
What does this “case” mean? And that Russia and the United States have a tense situation. A serious conversation is underway, a soft demonstration of the serious capabilities of the parties. Earlier, six months ago, the Americans shot down their satellite from a destroyer at an altitude of 150 km.
Satellite constellations for both Russia and the United States are primarily military systems aimed at solving strategic problems. Tracking ballistic missile launches, movements, monitoring launch trajectories and target designation, providing communications and navigation, primarily military. Any armed conflict in the modern world begins with the goal of blinding the enemy.

One of the devices - American - unlike the other - Russian - was operational. And as experts say, he could have avoided the collision. Everything, according to experts, happened by chance. And there should be no catastrophic consequences of this meeting. Nevertheless, there is reason to think.

For a non-specialist it is not at all clear how this could be - a collision in space. It would seem that there is so much space - I don’t want to fly. It all happened on February 10th. At an altitude of 800 kilometers, the American satellite Iridium-32 and the Russian military satellite Kosmos-2251 met each other. The American satellite was operational, ours was already disabled. Fragments of satellites - 500-600 fragments more than 5 centimeters in size - were scattered at altitudes from 500 to 1300 kilometers. Experts say there is no threat to the International Space Station.

“The orbits of the ISS and the orbits of the destroyed satellites do not coincide,” says Alexander Vorobyov, head of the press service of the Federal Space Agency. “And we assume that there should be no problems. However, as far as I know, both NASA and the Roscosmos Mission Control Center are tracking situations. If necessary, the ISS can maneuver."

Older people probably remembered a popular joke in the 80s: the Space Shuttle collided with a meteorite. The crew of the Soviet meteorite received awards.

Of course, no one was going to deliberately arrange an “accident” in space. But the collision, experts say, could have been avoided. On the American satellite, the engine was running and there was a supply of fuel. But apparently Iridium did not receive a warning about the likelihood of a collision or ignored it. There is one more point: our satellite, strictly speaking, is not a satellite - it was turned off in 1997. “A satellite is a device that works. In this case, it’s more likely that space debris collided with an American satellite,” clarifies Alexander Vorobyov.

This category includes non-operating spacecraft and their debris, upper stages of launch vehicles and their debris. As of January 1, there were more than 12 thousand such objects in low-Earth orbit. According to NASA, spacecraft encountered space debris four times last year. Essentially the same thing happened on February 10th.

The problem of turning near-Earth space into a large landfill has long been discussed by all space powers. Just today an international meeting is taking place in Austria. Once again they are trying to figure out how to solve this problem.

Experts from both Roscosmos and NASA are confident that a collision in space will not have any fatal consequences. For Iridium satellite communications, the loss of a satellite is not a problem - there are backup ones. For ours, the loss of a spent satellite cannot create any problems.

Experts from both countries are closely monitoring the scattered debris. But most likely, over the coming weeks, the debris will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

In 1957, the first satellite was launched into orbit of the planet Earth, and since then, people, in an effort to learn more about the Universe or to solve completely earthly problems, periodically send space shuttles into orbit. Currently, more than 500,000 fragments of various “space debris” orbit around the Earth, of which more than 20,000 are of man-made origin. Debris rushes along the Earth's orbit at a speed of more than 28,000 km/h and quite often becomes the cause of space accidents, which is the subject of our review.

1. Collision of the Soyuz TM-17 shuttle and the Mir station (1994)

In 1994, while returning to Earth from the Russian space station Mir, the Soviet shuttle Soyuz TM-17 collided with Mir minutes after undocking. After the shuttle launched, pilot-cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliev reported to the Mission Control Center that the ship was responding too “sluggishly” to commands and was drifting too close to one of Mir’s solar panels. Shortly thereafter, TM-17 crashed into the station. Fortunately, no serious damage was found.

2. Collision of the space shuttle Progress M-34 and the Mir station (1997)

The old proverb says that “a shell doesn’t hit the same crater twice,” but Vasily Tsibliev is living proof to the contrary. The Mir station experienced two collisions during its time in orbit, and both times the shuttle was controlled by Tsibliev. In the 1990s, Russia tried to improve the remote control docking system to replace the expensive automated system supplied by Ukraine. To test the new system, the supply ship Progress M-34 attempted to dock with Mir on June 24, 1997. However, this turned out to be much more difficult than previously thought, and the M-34 veered off course during the test.

For some reason, it was not possible to quickly slow down the ship, and it crashed quite sharply into the station. This caused serious damage to one of the solar panels and radiators, and also led to the depressurization of the Mir. Fortunately, there was no serious damage to the space station, but it took several weeks to resume normal operations.

3. Hyperspeed Impact (2009)

On February 10, 2009, the commercial communications satellite Iridium 33 and the Russian military satellite Kosmos-2251 collided at an altitude of 800 kilometers above the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia. The total speed of the satellites was 24,480 kilometers per hour, and their total weight was 1,500 kg. As a result of the accident, both satellites were completely destroyed. The hypervelocity impact (so called because speeds were actually measured in kilometers per second) resulted in more than 2,000 fragments, approximately 10-15 centimeters in diameter, being scattered in orbit around the Earth. This debris still poses a huge threat to the International Space Station. As of early 2014, approximately 25 percent of the garbage had burned up in the atmosphere.

4. Satellites falling on the Moon

The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth, so collisions between the Moon and artificial satellites have been included in this list. Humanity has currently sent 74 probes and manned spacecraft to the Moon, 51 of which have impacted its surface. In 19 of these cases, the accidents were intentional, such as the Apollo mission, where S-IVB rockets were dropped on the lunar surface to measure seismic activity. Most of the satellites and probes that have found their final resting place on the lunar surface are US property. In most cases, this was because the satellites had completed their mission and were no longer needed, so they were turned off, after which the ships simply fell to the Moon. Over the past 50 years, humanity has dropped 128,141 kg of satellites onto the Moon.

5. The Impact That Destroyed BLITS (2013)

In 2009, the BLITS retroreflector satellite was launched into orbit. Made from several types of glass, all with different degrees of refraction, the small, 8-kilogram satellite would carry out a five-year mission to support scientific research in geophysics and geodynamics, as well as tests of a satellite laser communications system. Four years later, in 2013, Russian scientists noticed an instantaneous measurement of the BLITS orbital altitude of 120 meters. The frequency of its rotation period has also increased. BLITS also stopped responding to laser ranging signals. It was suggested that some kind of collision had occurred.

After analyzing orbital data, it turned out that there was another object 3 kilometers from the accident site, which was flying at a relative speed of 34,920 km/h at the time of the impact. The culprit turned out to be a piece of Chinese space debris. In 2007, as part of a test of an anti-missile satellite system, China destroyed one of its 750-kg weather satellites, Fengyun 1C (FY-1C). The test was successful, but the explosion resulted in 2,317 pieces of debris.

6. Collision of the Ecuadorian Pegaso satellite with space debris

In 1985, Russia used a Cyclone 3 rocket to launch Cosmos 1666, an electronic signals intelligence jammer satellite similar in design to the Saturn rockets used by NASA. The launch was successful and Cosmos 1666 was launched into orbit. But the last stage of the Cyclone-3 rocket did not burn out and also remained flying around the Earth.

After 28 years in orbit, a cloud of debris has enveloped part of Cyclone 3, making it even more dangerous than before. In 2013, over the Indian Ocean, the small Ecuadorian satellite Pegaso collided with debris surrounding Cyclone 3. Due to antenna misalignment after the collision, the satellite changed its orbit. It has also started spinning wildly and can no longer receive messages or send data. Three months after the accident, the Ecuadorian Civil Space Agency (EXA) announced that Pegaso had completed its mission.

7. Satellite collision due to a malfunction of the navigation system (2005)

DART (Demonstration of Autonomous Rendezvous Technology) was developed by NASA to conduct complex maneuvers without human control. If successful, DART could be used to perform complex servicing tasks on existing satellites such as the Hubble Telescope. Unfortunately, during the test flight, an emergency occurred and the DART collided with the MUBLCOM communications satellite. Both satellites were not seriously damaged after the collision and are currently in low orbits where they would pose no threat to any other spacecraft. They will slowly descend over the next 25 years to burn up in the Earth's atmosphere.

8. Collision of the French Cerise satellite with its own launch vehicle (1996)

Named after the French word for cherry, Cerise was a 50-kilogram military reconnaissance satellite designed to intercept high-frequency radio signals for French intelligence agencies. On July 7, 1995, the satellite was successfully launched into orbit using Ariane 4, a three-stage rocket often used by the European Space Agency. Just a year after the start of its spy mission, Cerise fell out of orbit. NASA was able to determine that Cerise was shot down by a fragment of an Ariane 1 rocket stage from a previous mission. Cerise's performance has been severely impacted, but it still works.

9. USA-193 (2008)

In 2006, just minutes after the top-secret satellite USA 193 successfully entered its orbit, communication between it and ground control was lost. Usually a satellite that fails simply burns up in the atmosphere, but USA-193 was no ordinary satellite. The satellite weighed a whopping 2,300 kilograms and measured 4.5 meters long and 2.5 meters wide. It also had a full tank of fuel (454 kilograms of toxic hydrazine). Obviously, it was impossible to allow USA-193 with toxic contents to return to the atmosphere - for earthlings this would be fraught with an environmental disaster. Two years later, USA 193 was successfully destroyed at an altitude of 247 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean.

10. Galileo Suicide Flight (2003)

Galileo is by far one of the most important satellites ever built. With its help, humanity was supposed to expand its knowledge of the solar system. Created in 1989, Galileo flew past Venus and Earth, taking a number of stunning photographs, and headed to Jupiter five years later.

This little explorer made many discoveries: Galileo was the first to fly near an asteroid, discovered a tiny satellite orbiting an asteroid, became the first and only probe to directly observe the impact of a comet colliding with a planet, measured the atmosphere of Jupiter, discovered intense volcanic activity on Io, found evidence of the existence of underground salt water on Jupiter's moons Europa, Ganymede and Callisto.

Given that Galileo would not have enough fuel to return to Earth to avoid polluting Jupiter, its moons, and the solar system as a whole, the decision was made to destroy Galileo. On September 21, 2003, after 14 years in space and eight years in the Jupiter system, Galileo plunged into the gas giant's atmosphere with zero chance of survival.

A number of space explorations are related to the future of humanity. Scientists, looking into the distant future, have proposed in any conditions.

1994

In 1994, during a return mission from the Russian space station Mir to Earth, a simple Soyuz spacecraft collided with Mir a few minutes after liftoff. As part of an ongoing inspection of the space station, photographers were on board, so when the astronauts headed home, Mission Control ordered them to take some photos of the docking deck.

A few minutes later, having begun the task, cosmonaut Vasily Tsibliev complained that the ship reacted jerkily, behaved “sluggishly,” and that TM-17 sailed too close to one of the Mir solar arrays. Soon after, MCC operators saw that the outer chamber of TM-17 shook violently, and on-board cosmonaut Alexander Serebrov reported that the spacecraft had collided with the Mir station. Communication with ground control was interrupted, but, fortunately, was restored within a few minutes.

Although Soyuz TM-17 hit Mir twice, the collisions did not cause serious damage. The cause of the accident was attributed to switch errors in the left propulsion control lever in the lander. Fortunately, Tsibliev was able to control the TM-17 with the right lever and, when he realized that a collision could not be avoided, he managed to move the device away from the solar panels, antennas, and docking ports of the Mir station, otherwise the collision could have been catastrophic.

Progress M-34 crashes into Mir

The old wisdom says that lightning never strikes twice in the same place, but Vasily Tsibliev is living proof to the contrary. The Mir station suffered only two collisions with satellites during operation, and Tsibliev controlled them in both cases.

In the 1990s, Russia tried to improve a system for remote control of the docking process to replace the expensive automated procedure provided by Ukraine. To test the new system, the Progress M-34 support vessel undocked from the Mir station on June 24, 1997, and had to be docked manually. However, this turned out to be much more difficult than expected, and during testing, the M-34 temporarily disappeared behind the Earth's cloud background, causing the module to veer off course. For some reason, the brakes were unable to successfully slow down the M-34, and the ship collided rather violently with the Spektr module.

Although the accident had nothing to do with Michael Bay-style explosions, the Mir station's solar panels and radiators were seriously damaged, and a puncture in the Specter module's casing resulted in a release of pressure. After the impact, the Mir crew heard a hissing sound and their ears were blocked, which indicated depressurization. The Spektr had to be blocked, and the Mir station was cut off from the solar panels of the module. As a result, the station lost power and began to drift in space. Fortunately, access to electricity was restored, and the station itself did not suffer catastrophic damage, so after a few weeks the normal functioning of the Mir station was restored.

On July 2, 1997, after the Progress M-34 was freed from the Mir station's docking dock, the destructive cargo ship burned up in the Earth's atmosphere over the Pacific Ocean. Perhaps the astronauts watching this should have felt relieved.

High speed collision

year 2009

On February 10, 2009, Iridium-33, a commercial communications satellite, and Kosmos-2251, an obsolete Russian military satellite, collided 800 kilometers above the Taimyr Peninsula in Siberia. At that time, both satellites were flying at a speed of 24,480 kilometers per hour and weighed a total of 1,500 kilograms. The colossal impact of the collision completely destroyed both satellites.

The "high-velocity impact" (so named because the speeds of the objects involved could be measured in kilometers per second) left more than 2,000 fragments, 10-15 centimeters in diameter, in Earth's orbit. This debris still poses a serious threat to the International Space Station as the fragments orbit in the same region. Although the ISS has not suffered direct impacts since the 2009 accident, it has had to take evasive action to avoid debris.

The remnants of that accident still orbit the Earth and pose a serious threat. Fortunately, the orbits of most of these fragments are disrupted, meaning the debris will burn up in the atmosphere. By January 2014, about 25% of that garbage had already burned. Let's hope that by the time we decide to remove debris from orbit, this particular debris will have already been removed on its own.

Collision with the Moon

The Moon is a natural satellite of the Earth, so collisions of satellites with the Moon can be included in our list. To date, humanity has sent 74 probes and manned spacecraft to the Moon, 51 of which have crashed on its white, rocky surface. 19 of these impacts were intentional, including the Apollo missions, which dropped S-IVB rockets onto the lunar surface to measure its seismic activity.

Most of the satellites and probes that fell on the surface of our moon belonged to the United States. In most cases, their downfall was due to the completion of their mission, so they were simply knocked out and allowed to fall. The USSR had a difficult time when the Union was trying to land its probes correctly, so half of the lunar missions were simply left lying on the surface of the Earth's natural satellite.

Whether those impacts were intentional or not, humanity has dropped 128,141 kilograms of probes on the Moon over the past 50 years, with several more lunar walks planned for the next couple of decades.

The Clash That Destroyed BLITS

year 2013


In 2009, the BLITS retroreflector satellite was launched into orbit. Made from several types of glass, all with different refractive indices, the small 8-kilogram satellite would conduct a five-year mission supporting scientific research in geophysics and geodynamics, as well as serving as a test bed for satellite laser positioning applications.

Four years later, in 2013, Russian scientists noticed a sudden 120-meter drop in the height of BLITS. The satellite's rotation frequency also increased from 0.18 to 0.48 Hz. BLITS also stopped responding to laser positioning signals, which begged the question: did something hit the BLITS? After analyzing orbital data, scientists found that one object was within three kilometers of BLITS, flying at a relative speed of 34,920 kilometers per hour. It was a representative of Chinese space debris.

In 2007, China destroyed one of its 750-kilogram weather satellites, Fengyun 1C (FY-1C), as part of an anti-satellite missile test. The test was successful, but the satellite's explosion sent 2,317 tracked fragments racing in different orbital planes around the Earth. In addition, another 15,000 untraceable fragments were sent into orbit. From the moment of the explosion, the remaining debris began to pose a never-ending threat to low-orbit spacecraft. Some of them, including the ISS, had to perform evasive maneuvers.

It was only a matter of time before debris from the FY-1C damaged the satellite. The non-working BLITS remained in orbit, floating around the Earth as just another piece of space junk that would one day be hit by another working satellite.

The chaos of Russian wreckage

year 2013


In 1985, Russia launched the Cosmos 1666 satellite into space aboard a Cyclone 3 rocket. The launch was successful, and Cosmos 1666 entered orbit. Unfortunately, the last stage of the Cyclone-3 rocket also remained floating in Earth orbit. After 28 years in orbit, a cloud of debris surrounded Cyclone 3, making the stage even more dangerous than before.

In 2013, over the Indian Ocean, a small Ecuadorian moon named Pegasus met its fate. Although Pegasus did not directly collide with Cyclone 3, a cloud of debris struck the tiny satellite, knocking off its antennas and causing it to spin wildly. Pegasus was not damaged during the accident, but due to the failure of the antennas, its orbit changed, and its rapid rotation made it impossible to receive and transmit signals in the future. Three months after the accident, the Ecuadorian Civil Space Agency (EXA) declared Pegasus lost and terminated its mission.

“Cyclone-3” may not be satisfied with the death of one Ecuadorian “Pegasus”, but also push down its companion, the Argentine satellite CubeBug-1. And this begs the question: How many more satellites will this giant cloud of debris destroy?

Navigation system malfunction causes satellites to collide

2005 year


The Demonstration for Autonomous Rendezvous Technology (DART) was designed by NASA to test complex maneuvers in fairly tight spaces without any human intervention. If successful, DART could be used to perform complex technical and repair tasks on existing satellites, including the Hubble Telescope. Unfortunately, this program proved that it is too early to demand too much from an automated spacecraft. During the test, it simply crashed into the designated target, the MUBLCOM communications satellite, pushing it into a higher orbit.

Although the DART mission was not a success, it showed that more precautions and precision are needed when it comes to a fully automatic spacecraft. Fortunately, both companions survived the collision, although they were slightly bruised. In addition, they are both currently in low orbits, where they pose no threat to other spacecraft.

Cerise was shot down by a “native” missile

1996


Named after the French word for cherry, Cerise was a 50-kilogram military reconnaissance satellite designed to intercept high-frequency radio signals for French intelligence agencies. On July 7, 1995, the little intruder was successfully launched into orbit by the Ariana 4 launch vehicle, a three-stage transport used by the European Space Agency.

Almost a year into its spy mission, Cerise was knocked out of its orbit, lost altitude and began to fall. Although this had never been seen before, it became obvious that Cerise had been hit by something.

Using the COMBO (Computation Of Miss Between Orbits) program, NASA was able to establish that Cerise was shot down by a fragment of a previous mission. This was the first time two man-made objects collided in space. Further analysis revealed that the case involved a fragment of an old Ariana 1 rocket, which disintegrated into 500 traceable pieces. It turns out that Cerise was shot down by an older version of the same rocket that carried it into space.

The collision severely damaged Cerise, but the satellite continued to operate. And he worked for many more months.

USA 193

2008


In 2006, just minutes after the top-secret satellite USA 193 successfully entered its orbit, communications between it and ground control were lost. Usually no one cares. Yes, it's unpleasant, but satellites eventually burn up in the atmosphere. However, USA 193 was no ordinary satellite. It weighed a whopping 2,300 kilograms and was 4.5 meters long and 2.5 meters wide.

Again, this should not have been a problem, except that USA 193 failed right at the start of the mission and was with a full tank of fuel - 454 kilograms of toxic hydrazine, which would survive re-entry. Obviously, USA 193 could not have been allowed to enter the atmosphere and spill toxic fuel on innocent people. The operation began.

General James Cartwright confirmed plans were made to launch a $10 million SM-3 rocket to destroy the satellite before it reentered Earth's atmosphere. The toxic fuel would either go into space or burn up in the atmosphere. Since the satellite was in low orbit, most of the debris would have immediately entered the Earth's atmosphere and burned up within 48 hours, with the remaining fragments falling no later than 40 days later.

In 2008, almost two years after its initial launch, USA 193 was successfully destroyed 247 kilometers above the Pacific Ocean. It was blown into 174 pieces, which were cataloged and tracked by the US military. Most of the debris fell to Earth and burned a few months later, slightly longer than predicted. Some pieces were ejected into a higher orbit than expected, and the last piece of USA 193 entered the atmosphere in October 2009.

Fortunately, none of the debris from the destroyed USA 193 resulted in a collision.

Suicide of "Galileo"

2003


Galileo is by far one of the most important satellites ever built, enormously expanding our understanding of the solar system and providing incredible images of Jupiter and its moons. Launched in 1989, Galileo zoomed past Venus and Earth before ending its journey on Jupiter nearly five years ago.

This little explorer did many firsts: the first to fly past an asteroid, the first to discover a moon orbiting an asteroid, the first and only to directly observe a comet impact with a planet, the first to measure the atmosphere of Jupiter, the first to discover Io's volcanism, and the first to find evidence of an underground salt ocean on the Trojan Europa. Ganymede and Callisto.

There was growing concern among astronomers that Galileo might one day collide with one of Jupiter's many moons, possibly contaminating them. Given that these moons are considered potentially habitable, like Europa, something had to be done. The Galileo simply would not have enough fuel to return to Earth, and the only option to avoid contamination of the Trojan system, and indeed the Solar system as a whole, was to destroy the Galileo, sending it to the very planet that it had studied for so long.

So, on September 21, 2003, after 14 years in space and 8 years in the Jupiter system, Galileo descended into the gas giant's powerful pressure region at 7 pm GMT with zero chance of survival. It was a tragedy for Galileo and a noble cause at the same time. Have a nice trip, Galileo!

Based on materials from listverse.com

News of the orbital collision broke on the morning of February 12, 2009. World news agencies reported that an American satellite and an unnamed Russian device collided over Siberia. According to an official representative of the U.S. Strategic Command, cited by the Space.com portal, the first data about a possible collision appeared when representatives of the Iridium company contacted the command. They reported that at 16:55 GMT (19:55 Moscow time) communication with their Iridium 33 satellite was lost.

Some time later, information was received from the U.S. Space Surveillance Network that a large amount of small debris had appeared in the area where the satellite was located. From this it was concluded that the device fell victim to a collision with space debris.

The culprit was found quickly enough. According to an official statement from Iridium, which was distributed to news agencies, Iridium 33 collided with the Russian satellite Kosmos-2251. The latter was launched from the Plesetsk cosmodrome back in 1993 and ceased operation two years after that.

The Russian Ministry of Defense acknowledged the collision and stated that the Cosmos had a military purpose, which, however, was not specified. According to some reports, Kosmos-2251 was a military communications satellite.

The event was the first recorded collision of satellites in orbit, but it was far from the first collision of man-made objects in space. The first such incident officially registered occurred in 1996. Then the spent stage of the Ariane rocket damaged the French spy satellite Cerise.

Representatives of Iridium have already stated that they are not going to blame anyone for the collision. According to them, the event that occurred was an accident, and extremely unlikely. In addition, the Russian satellite was deprived of engines for maneuvering, so it potentially could not avoid a collision. It is not reported whether the Iridium 33 could have avoided the accident.

Company representatives also hastened to assure their users that the loss of one satellite would have a negligible impact on the quality of services. Iridium provides channels for data and voice communications.

Consequences

According to AFP, the Russian device weighed almost 900 kilograms, and the American one - 450 kilograms. As a result of the collision, the satellites were almost completely destroyed, that is, about 1350 kilograms of space debris appeared in orbit. Currently, the US Space Tracking Network is monitoring about five hundred of the largest fragments.

The satellite collision was the second largest in terms of the amount of space debris produced. First on the list of the dirtiest events is China's destruction of its own satellite in 2007. Then more than 2,500 new debris formed in orbit.

Experts believe that the resulting debris may pose the greatest danger to other satellites in the Iridium network, since most of the fragments are likely to remain in orbit of the American satellite.

There are also concerns that debris could threaten the International Space Station. Representatives of Roscosmos have already stated that the debris does not pose a danger to the ISS, since the station is located at an altitude of only 350 kilometers (the collision, we recall, occurred at an altitude of approximately 800 kilometers). NASA representatives spoke out more cautiously: they suggested that the smallest fragments could still reach the ISS orbit, so some danger exists.

According to experts, it is currently almost impossible to assess the scale of the danger. trastik.com It will be possible to speak more specifically when the clouds of space debris formed after the collision dissipate, and individual large and, therefore, the most dangerous fragments will become clearly visible to ground-based observation services.