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Russia opens space junk tracking post

Posted by chrisd on from the hasselblad-orbit-decaying dept.

nairnr writes "CNN has an article about a new space object tracking post in Tajikistan. The Russian military space forces on Thursday inaugurated an optical tracking facility located in the ex-Soviet republic of Tajikistan that is intended to monitor objects in space. The Okno (Window) complex, near the town of Nurek in central Tajikistan, is capable of tracking objects 40,000 kilometers (24,800 miles) from Earth, the space forces said in a statement carried by the Interfax-Military News Agency. According to the space forces, the Okno, which was put on test duty Thursday, offers a better range and precision than standard radar facilities. The report did not elaborate on how the Okno works"

2 of 14 comments (clear)

  1. The horse's mouth... by Peter+T+Ermit · · Score: 3, Informative

    As the article says, the Federation of American Scientists says that this facility is like GEODSS.

  2. Resolving power? by dschuetz · · Score: 5, Interesting

    Sure, I'm all about tracking stuff visually, so you can actually *see* what it is you're tracking, but what's the resolving power of the facility? If I recall correctly, the US already tracks thousands (if not hundreds of thousands or millions) bits of space junk, down to the size of small bolts. If the Russians have an optical facility that can resolve those, then I'll be truly impressed.

    The best optical imaging of orbiting objects I've ever seen came from a Boston museum (I think), which managed to use the GOTO[1] functionality on a 12-inch telescope to track the Shuttle while docked with ISS. If you squinted, you could just recognize it. And they fly in a (relatively) low orbit. [here's a site with some nice shots]

    So, again, if they can manage to optically track very small objet d'junk, I'll be very impressed. If they're only visually tracking larger objects (like, say, US spy satellites), then I'd say they've probably got a different purpose in mind.

    [1] See? Not all GOTO's are bad!