Space crash debris may threaten other satellites

Debris from this week's satellite collision could circle Earth for up to 10,000 years, threatening many other satellites in an already-crowded area, Russia's Mission Control chief said on Friday.

Vladimir Solovyov said Tuesday's smashup of a derelict Russian military satellite and a working US Iridium commercial satellite occurred some 800 km above Earth, the busiest part of near-Earth space.

"800 km is a very popular orbit which is used by Earth-tracking and communications satellites," Solovyov said. "The clouds of debris pose a serious danger to them."

Solovyov said even tiny fragments could pose a serious threat to spacecraft made of light alloys because both travel at such a high speed.

Most fragments are concentrated near the collision course, but Major-General Alexander Yakushin, chief of staff of the Russian military's Space Forces, said some debris was thrown into other orbits, ranging from 500-1,300 km above Earth.

The US military already tracks 18,000 objects in orbit, but no one has any idea yet exactly how many extra pieces of space junk were generated by the collision or how big they might be. Space experts say the collision created hundreds of fragments, maybe thousands, if tiny pieces are included.

Meanwhile, there's no global air traffic control system that tracks the position of all satellites.

Agencies

(China Daily 02/14/2009 page11)