Satellite-wreckage threat to others: Official
February 13th, 2009 - 5:41 pm ICT by IANSKorolyov (Russia), Feb 13 (RIA Novosti) The wreckage of the US and Russian satellites that collided Tuesday poses a serious threat to other satellites on the same orbit, a Russian Mission Control official told journalists Friday.
“The 800 km 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.
US Iridium satellite and the defunct Russian Cosmos-2251 collided approximately 800 km above Siberia, which was the first time such an incident has occurred.
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Tags: communications satellites, debris, earth, international space station, iridium satellite, journalists, orbit, ria novosti, russia, russian cosmos, russian mission control, russian satellites, russian segment, siberia, telecommunications satellites, vladimir solovyov, wreckage