NASA official recalls near miss with Russian spacecraft: ‘Less than 10 meters apart’

The incident occurred on February 28.

A Russian satellite came “less than 10 meters” from a NASA satellite and nearly collided with it, potentially endangering multiple lives, according to a NASA report. telegraph. NASA Associate Administrator Pam Melroy said several experts were “very frightened” by the events of February 28. Notably, “neither satellite is maneuverable.”

The U.S. Department of Defense is also monitoring close flights between the Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energy and Dynamics Mission (TIMED) spacecraft and the defunct Russian Cosmos 2221 satellite. Russian spy satellites fly very close to U.S. satellites, which helps monitor Earth’s atmosphere.

Former astronaut Colonel Melroy said that if the satellites collided, hundreds of bullet-fast fragments would be shot around the Earth. He warned the problem was “huge”.

“This is very shocking to me personally and to all of us at NASA,” Ms. Melroy said at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium. On February 28, NASA’s Timed ‘s spacecraft and a Russian satellite, both of which cannot be maneuvered, are expected to approach orbit. We recently learned that the path ends up being less than 10 meters apart, less than the distance from me to the front row. If two satellites collided, we would see the creation of debris, tiny pieces traveling at 10,000 miles per hour waiting to puncture a hole in the other spacecraft and potentially endanger human lives. “

She added that the team was really worried. “It’s a little sobering to think that something the size of an eraser on the end of a pencil can wreak such havoc – but it can. We’re all worried about this. Time really scares us.”

NASA unveiled its space sustainability strategy on Tuesday, with the goal of keeping orbits as clear as possible while improving satellite and debris mapping and monitoring. Notably, there are currently more than 10,000 satellites orbiting the Earth, a fourfold increase since 2019, and the number is expected to increase rapidly.

Meanwhile, a Russian rocket carried out its third test flight on Thursday, after a launch attempt earlier this week was aborted in the final seconds of the countdown, AFP reported. The live broadcast showed that the flagship Angara A5, a powerful spacecraft designed to carry heavy payloads into low-Earth orbit, took off from the Vostochny Cosmodrome in the Russian Far East. Launch attempts on Tuesday and Wednesday were canceled due to malfunctions in the oxidizer tank pressurization system and engine control system, according to Roscosmos.