A US Iridium satellite has hit a defunct Russian satellite in an unprecedented space collision. The crash occurred some 790km (491 miles) over Siberia on Tuesday, according to NASA, and produced a "massive" cloud of debris. About 600 pieces are being tracked from the debris field in hopes of understanding the risk they present to other satellites and the international space station. The Russian craft was identified as the 950kg (2,094 pound) Cosmos 2251, a communications relay station launched in 1993 and believed to have been non-operational for the last 10 years or so. The Iridium telecommunications satellite was estimated to weigh about 560kg (1,234 pounds).
Unsurprisingly, its loss is expected to have "minimal impact on Iridium's service," according to a statement made by the company. When asked who was at fault, NASA responded dryly:
posted Feb 12th 2009 1:33AM
NASA's way of saying, "iono, God?".
Here come the "In soviet Russia.[noun] [action] you!" comments...
\^[
Гребаные американцы
Гребаные россиян
Гребанные постеры на американском сайте с русской раскладкой!!!
Шутка
Who's at fault? The one who put a non-operational satellite in the orbit and left it there instead of pulling it back into atmosphere and burning it or going and capturing it in order to re-use it. Means both sides are at fault. Space isn't supposed to be a satellite junkyard, ya know?
Good, Iridium took down of those darn Enclave eyebots.
Iridium was the defunct satellite telephone satellite.
It's not like they are use much any more. Just more space junk.
The network is still in use. Granted only in places where you can't get cell reception. North Pole, South Pole, Africa, middle of an ocean.
It was a good idea when cell phone networks were fractured. Now that you can get global cell service satellite phones are more a niche product.
THis MeAnS wAR!!!!!!
IN SOVIET RUSSIA, THE SATELLITES CRASH YOU!
Whoops!
Yeah, the Russian satellite apparently had a nuclear reactor on it as well according to WSJ... Scarry stuff.
@Konstantin
I presume it was a radioisotope generator which is really no big deal. those things are solid state and pretty much safe.
Satellites collision ? omg this is worse than Tai-Chi Fights
Sputnick?
nuclear reactor? Hahah.. yea right..
Pretty much safe.. until they drop through your roof in canada like the last time. (well didn't hit a roof but landed in the woods, but it could have)
They can track pieces in the debris field but not whole satellites. Attention astronauts: Good Luck!
They wanted to see which one gets more damage from the hit.
And why the heck would they put a program into satellites which would detect incoming objects and correct trajectory? Its easier to throw another satellite into the orbit!
Ecology? Economy? Who cares about this crap?!
I think his point was, how the heck can they track tiny fragments of satellites and still not have seen this coming? Then again, it says "unprecedented", not "unforeseen". It's possible they did foresee it and just didn't want to waste any time/money/energy saving two nearly useless satellites. As for the debris, well... That's next decade's Global Warming crisis equivalent. We'll let THEM handle it :P
So, who's going to clean it up? I don't envy that astronaut, or cosmonaut.
Maybe they should hire my old school janitor (he was obsessed with this sort of stuff).
And what exactly would that be? Space Debris? Sounds like a cool janitor. (-;
I suppose it has to be Roger Wilco. Space Quest here we come!
zOMG!
Roger Wilko!! I'm surprised to hear this name :-)
> ...So, who's going to clean it up? ...
Thousands of chunks of two satellites receding from each other at thousands of kilometers per hour in a massive semi-spherical spray, that is, in all directions.
The Eons are going to be cleaning this one up.
An astronomer notes that the two satellites collided as:
>>> ...The angle subtending the two satellites' trajectories was 103.3 degrees. The two
>>> satellites were travelling at the same speed: 4.6 miles per second. Using basic
>>> physics, I estimated that when the two satellites collided, they had a relative
>>> velocity of 5.7 miles per second or approximately 20,500 miles per hour...
That's 30,000+ KMH collision speed.
Poof!
Let's see someone catch up with THOSE pieces..
Actually, the collision would have altered the pieces' trajectories (now plural, lol) enough that I imagine most of the pieces will either escape the Earth's orbit or re-enter the atmosphere. In the one case they become miniature asteroids out there somewhere, and in the other they become little flecks of ash. I don't think cleanup will be that bad.
Who picks up this mess? Well you're going to pick up this mess, because YOU are a garbage man.
'We had no way of knowing, I mean it's not like these things are in regular continual orbits following well understood physics...'
Not when they have been non-operational for 10 years. Satellites need constant course corrections in order to sustain a regular orbit. Once they run out of propellant, that's it.
I am pretty sure it is considered good practice to use your last remnants of propellant to boost yourself up into a high 'graveyard' orbit, where you won't get in the way of anyone else for a long time. However, if the satellite stopped responding due to a fault rather than just running out of gas, there isn't really much you can do. And even if you have a functioning power supply, you need some actual propellant.
"There is no universal way of knowing what's coming in your direction" ... um.. Am I the only person that's heard of NORAD? They track things as small as lost screwdrivers, ALWAYS. They knew damn well it was going to happen, with their computer models, probably for days in advance.
Pardon me for donning the "tinfoil hat", but this sounds more like a Satellite Assassination then a mere accident. Whatever was on that Russian space craft was important enough to use a Civilian satellite to destroy. And Classified enough to fake a run in and full the sky with more hazardous space junk. Vladimir Putin just lost a super-cool Cold War toy, kids. You can bet on it.
In all reality some bored satellite controllers got board and decided to play a game of galactic chicken. This is what happens when nobody dodges.
@MaxSMoke Uh, except that this Russian satellite was launched in 1993, so it couldn't possibly be any "Cold War relic". Nice try, though.
And no, NORAD does not track every satellite up there, let alone *screwdrivers*. There are thousands, all with their own trajectories. They're all flying through space at ridiculous speeds, so you basically have no way to know where they are before long if their communication arrays go down.
@MaxSMoke
Yes. It was a space-based mirror like the ones used in "Spies Like Us". Except Russian. So we body-checked it with a kinetic-kill vehicle.
Now the secret is out. We've been waiting to exhale.... siiiiIIIIGHHHhhhhh.....
-NORAD
Personally, I think the best bet would be to save the last bit of propellant, re-enter the earth's atmosphere, release a chute, and retrieve the satellite for recycling and reuse. I mean...that'd be the smart/planet healthy way to go...
MST 3000 FTW!!!!
BOOO you changed the picture!!
Only now, after they changed the picture, and about ten minutes have passed, do i get your previous comment. Lol.
No points on NASA's license?
"A US Iridium satellite has hit a defunct Russian satellite"
Wait! How do we know it wasn't the other way around??? Maybe it's Idrovof's fault!
Outer space doesn't require no-fault insurance.
I can see people using this as an excuse to flame NASA some more. I hope this kind of stuff doesn't happen too much, otherwise one of our most valuable programs gets even less money. NASA needs to consider launching some sort of monitoring satellite for these type of things. Even if it's not possible. Seriously.
We can monitor from the ground just fine. I think most of the problem is that even if you detected an impending collision (assuming you had funding for more ground-based tracking), what do you do? Who has to move their satellite? It costs money to do it, and throws off their orbits and such. There's no agency that has the final say.
If that was the case stuff like this wouldn't happen. Granted, I'm not sure how many times this has happened (and accidents happen a lot of times regardless of anything else), but I would make it so satellites had detection collision systems that made is so they could avoid collision. Like how some cars stop themselves before hitting someone else.
That seems to make sense to me.
It might be useful in some cases, but I suspect that most of those fuckers are moving so fast that by the time you detected one, it would be too late.
Detecting impending collisions is easy, with the right tools. If we could measure the orbit of every satellite in near real time, we could predict way ahead (assuming the satellites do not alter their course, which might happen). The problem is that we can not track all objects - we do not have the facilities to do so. That's great that you'd like to do it St29, but unless you have a billion or so dollars to donate to the cause, we'll just have to live with the limited tracking abilities NASA currently has.
Trust me, if I had a billion or so dollars, I would gladly do so. Even if it meant I had to sleep in the back ally of a Holiday Inn. Hopefully the future of NASA will be better than the past few years.
Can't satellites PEW PEW PEW at each other?
Unfortunately, not. Maybe they could send some sharks, with you know... friggin laser beams out there? :p
In soviet russia, satellites PEW PEW PEW you.
I say its time for US territorial expansion!
Does this constitute as an International Incident or Universal Incident?
A nation in space is still a nation? Universal doesn't sound right in the least.
whoosh!
In soviet russia television watches you.
Hey! Here is the US , too!
But we're working on getting that changed backl...
hope they have good astro insurance....geico.com...zomg..a gecko with a space suit
Dude did the Lizard hire you @ MechanicalTurk?
I don't get it. For starters, these sats aren't that big. On top of that, space is RIDICULOUSLY VAST and has the added dimension of relative altitude. How easy is it to play bumper cars when you're miles up in orbit?
hey if you put 2 objects in orbit there is a chance of them hitting, small but still there. you have as many out there as we do now I'm surprised it doesn't happen more.
Space is ridiculously vast - the Earth isn't. And we're only talking about the space a relatively short distance up from the Earth. Put thousands of objects up there and fail to coordinate and/or control their orbits, and eventually two objects are going to hit each other. It's not like this is a daily occurrence - this is the first major accident like this in 50 years of launching satellites into orbit.
First lol? Of course i meant the unprecedented accident in space lol. How ll they clean up the mess?
karma for overcharging on satphone rates!
I don't know about you, but that nuclear material raining down all over me ain't gonna make me sleep any better, but I have the flu and I'm not sleeping all that well anyway.
"We don't have an air traffic controller in space."
Bring on the space tourism...
Anybody else seen Wall-E? Need I say more?
wow... i was gonna say... reminds me totally of wall-e's entry into outer space tagging along on that space ship carrying eve!!!
Shouldn't the article say the satellite had a mass of 560 kg? You can't weigh in kg.
What the hell are you on about? Trying to act smart yet not realizing
on the earth surface mass and weight can be used interchangeably in
kilograms.
So yes, I can hold a brick which WEIGHS 1kg.
My god... Refuse the metric system and this is what you get, scary!
mitch, good thing they're NOT on the earths's surface, but are in WEIGHT-lesness.
on the contrary, if they were in masslessness this whole thing wouldn't be a problem!
seeing as there is no gravity there can be no weight. Its just mass at that point.
There's no gravity huh? So these satellites are orbiting the earth just cause it's pretty then, are they? Seriously....
Regardless of whether it's weight, or mass, they're interchangeable. Even in Earth's orbit, they're the same fucking thing. A rose doesn't turn into a carnation just because you take it outside orbit. If that were the case, Ham would've settled on a planet, start Planet of the Apes, and we'd all be living a movie right now.
So weight, mass, whatever.
Being that they originate from two different countries, especially the US and Russia, I can understand why one might not be necessarily aware of all the satellites the other has orbiting in any given point in space, but at the least I'd have expected them to negotiate some form of "trajectory rights" for their commercial, if not military, satellites so as to avoid having them inadvertently cross eachothers paths.
stupid
there's already hundreds of Dead satellites (US and others) on the orbit now and the solution for cleaning it from them is absent for now
All commercial satellites have well recorded public paths, all military satellites have paths known to the military, and NORAD has a pretty complete db of all 'foreign' satellites.
Don't blame NASA, this isn't one of their satellites.
Don't blame Russia, we don't know the circumstances of how the lost control of their spacecraft. As noted earlier, if it's a system fault that causes you to lose control, there's very little you can do about it.
A kilogram is a unit of mass.
I can't believe this happened when you consider the vastness of the place...
This is only going to get worse....
"sattelite phones".... nice
"They ran into each other. Nothing has the right of way up there. We don't have an air traffic controller in space. There is no universal way of knowing what's coming in your direction."
That sounds like a frank admission of guilt, if I ever heard one :)
NASA : DOH!
Nothing is safe any more! :) Maybe Russian satellite was a "potential sleepy nuke" buhuhu :) Now we will have a more strict control over the night sky? Or this incident is just a phase?
Why do Russian satellites always look absolutely terrifying?
Is it just me or does the Russian satellite look exactly like one of those Eyebots from Fallout 3, the ones used to transmit the Enclave radio out in the wasteland?
Perhaps you meant to ask if the Eyebot designers paid homage to the first succesful orbiting satellite Sputnik? A video game is virtual, please return to reality.
so who's going to pay for this? have they assurances for satellites? =)
I am pretty sure I saw a Discovery Channel Series on the Super Computer systems they have that track the satellite's Path's in space. I remember them saying that even with the best super computers it's not he best, but that its still very important....for this very reason. Though I am sure tracking a 16 year old NON functional Russian Sat can be pretty tricky...I would have though it would have lost its orbit long ago with out corrections.
Didn't they just shoot down a satellite not to long ago? Must have been a lucky shot since they can't track them.
If it had been that important they would have done something about it. I bet we'll here in the next few days of the phone company being investigated for taking out a 2 billion insurance policy before the satellite "conveniently" died.
I would love to see a video of it though!
Of course one or the other is at fault...you just don't float shit up in the sky and not know if it's going to crash into something. Sure these are probably 2 satelites no one use anymore, but someone is at fault. You don't put 2 satelite on the same orbit crossing each other ya know. They either are paralelle or on different radius. That being said, the Russian satellite was up there first, so the us one should not have placed in the same orbit. I say the US satellite is more at fault since the given rule is to just let stuff float up there until it falls down. But at some point someone has to do something when we got so many trash floating up there. It's going to be hard to keep track.
must.. play.. freelancer!!
Kessler Syndrome, UR DOIN IT RITE!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kessler_Syndrome
How the heck are those poor survivors of Oceanic Flight 815 going to communicate with the rescue boat, now that their satellite phone doesn't work anymore?
With all the technology nowadays, you would think people would be able to track and monitor these things to prohibit this from happening.
I found this video that brings up some good facts from a few different sources about the crash.
http://www.newsy.com/videos/russia_and_u_s_collide_in_space/
They can and do track them, in fact there are sites where you can see live tracking information for hundreds of satellites, but the US military also have huge and costly facilities and radar stations to keep track of every damn satellite someone puts in space, make no mistake.
When the nasa says there is no traffic-controller they mean that there's no rules and it's assumed the area is large enough to not have accidents, although they did start sending defunct satellites down to burn up in the atmosphere at some point when they realised there are limits.
As to the statement 'there's no way of knowing what's coming in your direction'; that's pretty deceptive, there's plenty known about all satellites, although perhaps not to the 1/32th of an inch in 3D space unless focussed on by the radar arrays specifically which they probably only do for spy satellites and seeker anti-satellite weapons (and of course nuclear warheads in flight).
oh an eyebot.
Where was Clint Eastwood and the rest of the space cowboys to ride the thing to the moon? Think there were nukes aboard?
"We will not go quietly into the night!
We will not vanish without a fight!
We're going to live on!
We're going to survive!"
Today, we celebrate our Independence Day!
Wait, something went wrong here ... its not even close to 4th of July or June 12th for Russia for that matter ...
Stupid aliens.
Actually, the Russian satellite looks like the one on Wall-E's face when he exits Earth's atmosphere ...