A privately owned U.S. communications satellite -- owned by Iridium-- collided with a defunct Russian military satellite above Russia's Arctic north. Space officials in Russia and the United States are now tracking hundreds of pieces of debris that were spewed into space. (59 sec./1.96Mb, shows: 543)
Farmer James Striton examines the space junk he discovered on his farm in Cheepie, 130km from Charleville in southwestern Queensland. (click here) Photo is from 2008.
Wreckage of two satellites in orbit poses serious threat to others (click here)
13:12
13/ 02/ 2009
KOROLYOV (Moscow Region), February 13 (RIA Novosti) - The remnants of the U.S. and Russian satellites that collided on Tuesday poses a serious threat to other satellites on the same orbit, a Russian Mission Control official told journalists on Friday.
"800 kilometers is a very popular orbit for remote Earth sensing and telecommunications satellites," said Vladimir Solovyov, head of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.
"There are a lot of communications satellites there, many of them still in operation. There are 66 Iridium series satellites alone on that orbit. The cloud [of debris] from the collision is a serious threat to them," he said
Tuesday's collision of a U.S. Iridium satellite and the defunct Russian Cosmos-2251 approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) above Siberia was the first time such an incident has occurred.
