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Possible Collision Between Cube-satellite and Old Space Junk

Posted by Soulskill on from the shades-of-kessler dept.

photonic writes "The BBC is reporting on a possible collision between Ecuador's first satellite (a small cubesat) and debris from an upper stage of an old Russian rocket. If confirmed, this might be the third case in recent years, after a high-speed collision of an Iridium satellite with a dead Russian satellite in 2009 and a collision earlier this year between a Russian laser reflector (which can be tracked very accurately) and a tiny piece of a debris from a Chinese weather satellite that was destroyed in a missile test."

3 of 74 comments (clear)

  1. Fiction begets reality by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I guess it was only a matter of time before Planetes became relevant.

  2. Kessler Syndrome by invid · · Score: 5, Informative

    I think it has started.

    --
    The Moore-Murphy Law: The number of things that will go wrong will double every 2 years.
  3. Maybe it was too annoying for LEO? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    "Pegasus, a small cube weighing just 1.2kg (2.6lb), has been orbiting the Earth at a height of 650km (404 miles), transmitting pictures from space while playing recordings of the Ecuadorean national anthem."

    Maybe all the other satellites in orbit were getting annoyed by this little guy and took him out.