The International Space Station (ISS) had to carry out an evasive maneuver on Monday to avoid being hit by Russian space debris.
Why is this important?
Space debris is becoming a growing problem. Objects orbiting the Earth move at extremely high speeds, up to 30,000 kilometers per hour. The more garbage there is, the greater the chance that satellites and even manned space stations will be hit. That while more and more objects are placed in orbit around the Earth.The essence: ISS had to perform a 5-minute maneuver Monday night to avoid a piece of Russian space debris. This came from Kosmos 1408, a satellite that was deliberately detonated last year when Russia was testing a weapon.
- The piece of space junk was in orbit and would take it just five kilometers from the ISS. This was enough for the space station operators to decide to perform a maneuver.
- Five kilometers in space is a very small distance. For example, the ISS travels a distance of approximately 7.66 kilometers per second. At that speed, a collision can do a lot of damage.
- The maneuver means that the space station is now slightly higher in orbit around the Earth. This was reported by NASA on Monday in a Press release.
Notable: The piece of space junk was the result of a weapons test in space. In November 2021, Russia detonated Kosmos 1408, an inactive Soviet-era satellite. The country tested an anti-satellite weapon.
- After the explosion, Kosmos 1408 was reduced to a cloud of debris. 1,500 of these are still being tracked by space agencies. The United States then called the test “reckless and dangerous”.
- Shortly after the test, the residents of the ISS repair yourself several times in the spaceship which was then docked at the space station. Surprising: Russian cosmonauts were also on board at the time.
- It is not even the first time that the ISS has to move away from space junk. This was also supposed to happen in June, NASA wrote in a letter blog post.
- China also has a headache from the fiasco. In January, a satellite in the country was almost hit. A piece of debris then passed just 14 meters away. If the satellite had been hit, it would have been reduced to “confetti,” said Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics at the time. C.No.No..
In short words: The situation is therefore not exceptional. According to NASA the ISS must perform this maneuver every year. This should happen when the chance of a collision is greater than one in 10,000.
- In the meantime, there are millions of pieces in orbit around the Earth. At least 30,000 of them are larger than 10 centimeters, according to Numbers of the European Space Agency (ESA).
- There would also be about a million pieces of about one inch. They are all capable of damaging a spaceship or satellite.
- No less than 100 million fragments are the size of a grain of sand. Debris in this category is still powerful enough to penetrate astronauts’ spacesuits.
- There is a risk that the more debris there is, the more it will cause new collisions. This could set off a chain reaction, exponentially increasing the amount of space debris and making space travel more dangerous.
