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ISS Dodges Space Junk For First Time In Five Years

Posted by kdawson on from the missed-me-nyah-nyah dept.

Kligat writes "For the first time since 2003, the International Space Station has utilized the rockets on the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle to dodge leftover remnants of a defunct satellite. The Russian Cosmos-2421 was launched in June 2006 to track Western Navy vessels and is believed by NASA to have exploded — 'likely due to a self-destruct command issued by Russian officials' according to the article — leaving 500 pieces of space debris. Ordinarily, the rockets on the ATV are used to take the ISS away from Earth's atmosphere and reduce drag. In this case, the 5-minute firing caused the ISS to move downward because it was already near the top of its acceptable range. Estimated probability of impact was 1 in 72, and an avoidance maneuver is called for if the probability is greater than 1 in 10,000. The space junk was predicted to pass the ISS within just a mile."

8 of 141 comments (clear)

  1. In SOVIET RUSSIA.. by LostCluster · · Score: 5, Funny

    You watch out for spy satellites!

    1. Re:In SOVIET RUSSIA.. by ctetc007 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Actually, this really sucks because the rockets were used to LOWER the ISS. What a waste. I wonder how much warning they get before estimated impact.

      Actually, they were planning to lower the ISS for the next few missions anyway so that the shuttle would be able to bring up more cargo than usual. This maneuver wasn't so much a waste as it would seem to be.

  2. Re:Russia just can't tell the truth. by Kligat · · Score: 5, Funny

    Russian news avoids mentioning the Russian satellite and just refers to the ISS dodging a "cluster of garbage."

  3. Re:Space help? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    I'm not a rocket scientist. Is there another kind of drag that needs to be reduced?

    The drag of being stuck in a space station! It's pretty much like being in prison, but when you stick some rockets on it, suddenly you feel like a supervillain!

  4. Re:A mile? by DirtySouthAfrican · · Score: 5, Informative

    At the risk of being redundant, it's roughly a 1 in 72 chance that their calculations of a "miss" are off. Calculations of this sort involve a margin of error, from not precisely knowing locations of these objects to not being able to do forecasting accurately enough. Debris A gets hit by debris B (which somehow evaded your radar), sending off two new chunks of metal which weren't even IN your original calculations. I'm actually impressed that they can put solid numbers on these things, but I guess that's what supercomputers are for.

    Yay for safety margins.

  5. Re: it needs friggen lasers by dominious · · Score: 5, Funny

    Or could it make things worse? (lots of tiny particles you can't avoid vs. a couple of big particles.

    well, what we need then is a linux admin who has mastered that Asteroids game

  6. Re: "garbage" by neonsignal · · Score: 5, Funny

    maybe they were just quoting the engineers who had built the satellite...

  7. Hitting Space Junk by BinBoy · · Score: 5, Funny

    > ISS Dodges Space Junk For First Time In Five Years

    It must be really banged up after 5 years of hitting space junk.

    Admit it! You thought it too!