US mission is studying the sun and human influence on Earth’s layers (File)
The U.S. Department of Defense is monitoring close encounters between NASA’s Thermosphere, Ionosphere, Mesosphere Energy and Dynamics mission (TIMED) spacecraft and Russia’s Cosmos 2221 satellite, NASA said in a blog post early Wednesday. distance flight.
NASA said that while the two spacecraft were expected to miss each other, a collision could result in large amounts of debris, adding that it was continuing to monitor the situation with the Department of Defense. The statement did not say how close the spacecraft were to each other.
NASA said the two unmanned satellites are expected to make their closest approach around 1:30 a.m. ET (0630 GMT) on February 28, at an altitude of about 373 miles (600 kilometers).
The TIMED mission is studying the impact of the sun and humans on Earth’s mesosphere, lower thermosphere and ionosphere.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)
