2009 satellite collision

First hypervelocity spacecraft collision February 2019 right 350 Iridium satellite replica.jpg Strela-2M.jpg The two satellites involved in the collision: Iridium 33 (silver and gold) and a digital rendering of Kosmos 2251 (blue cylinder) On February 10, 2009, two communications satellites—the active commercial Iridium 33 and the derelict Russian military Kosmos 2251—accidentally collided at a speed of 11.7 km/s mph and an altitude of 789 km above the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia.Jonathan's Space Report No. 606 Jonathan McDowell http://host.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.606 February 15, 2009 Strela-2M satellites had lifetimes of around 3 years, and Gen. Yakushin of the Military Space Forces was quoted in Moscow Times as saying Kosmos-2251 went out of service in 1995. February 17, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20170405123635/http://host.planet4589.org/space/jsr/back/news.606 April 5, 2017 dead http://www.space.com/news/090211-satellite-collision.html Space.com U.S. Satellite Destroyed in Space Collision Becky Iannotta February 22, 2009 February 12, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090213230913/http://www.space.com/news/090211-satellite-collision.html February 13, 2009 live https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/11/AR2009021103387.html Debris From Satellites' Collision Said to Pose Small Risk to Space Station Joel Achenbach The Washington Post February 11, 2009 February 12, 2009 Marks Paul February 13, 2009 Satellite collision 'more powerful than China's ASAT test https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16604-satellite-collision-more-powerful-than-chinas-asat-test.html live https://web.archive.org/web/20090215030344/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16604-satellite-collision-more-powerful-than-chinas-asat-test.html February 15, 2009 February 17, 2009 New Scientist (putting the collision speed at 42120 kph km/s 1Matthews Mark K. February 13, 2009 Crash imperils satellites that monitor Earth http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-satellite1309feb13,0,1752465.story dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090216065243/http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/state/orl-satellite1309feb13%2C0%2C1752465.story February 16, 2009 February 17, 2009 Orlando Sentinel (reporting it as "what amounted to a 26,000 mph [7.7 miles/sec] collision")http://www.n2yo.com/collision-between-two-satellites.php Collision between Iridium 33 and Cosmos 2251 N2YO February 17, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090216151141/http://n2yo.com/collision-between-two-satellites.php February 16, 2009 dead It was the first time a hypervelocity collision had occurred between two satellites; previous incidents had involved a satellite and a piece of space debris.Satellite Collision Leaves Significant Debris Clouds Orbital Debris Quarterly News NASA Orbital Debris Program Office 13 2 April 2009 http://www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv13i2.pdf 1–2 May 20, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20100527132915/http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv13i2.pdf May 27, 2010 dead Spacecraft Iridium 33 Kosmos 2251 Kosmos 2251 was a 950 kg on -2 Russian Strela military communications satellite owned by the Russian Space Forces. Kosmos 2251 was launched on a Russian Cosmos-3M carrier rocket on June 16, 1993. This satellite had been deactivated prior to the collision, and remained in orbit as space debris. The other spacecraft, Iridium33, was a 560 kg on -2 U.S.-built commercial satellite that was part of the Iridium constellation for satellite phones. It was launched on September 14, 1997, atop a Russian Proton rocket. Conjunction and collision Events where two satellites approach within several kilometers of each other occur numerous times each day. Sorting through the large number of potential collisions to identify those that are high risk presents a challenge. Precise, up-to-date information regarding current satellite positions is difficult to obtain. Calculations made by CelesTrak had expected these two satellites to miss by 584 m ft on.http://celestrak.com/events/collision.asp CelesTrak Iridium 33/Cosmos 2251 Collision March 18, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090317043727/http://celestrak.com/events/collision.asp March 17, 2009 dead Planning an avoidance maneuver with due consideration of the risk, the fuel consumption required for the maneuver, and its effects on the satellite's normal functioning can also be challenging. John Campbell of Iridium spoke at a June 2007 forum discussing these tradeoffs and the difficulty of handling all the notifications they were getting regarding close approaches, which numbered 400 per week (for approaches within 5 km 0) for the entire Iridium constellation. He estimated the risk of collision per conjunction as one in 50million.The Space Review http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1314/1 Billiards in space Brian Weeden February 23, 2009 February 24, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090226195408/http://www.thespacereview.com/article/1314/1 February 26, 2009 live thumb|Collision diagram The collision occurred at 16:56 UTC and destroyed both the Iridium 33 and Kosmos-2251. The Iridium satellite was operational at the time of the collision. Kosmos-2251 had gone out of service in 1995. http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/374510.htm https://archive.today/20130113200715/http://www.moscowtimes.ru/article/1010/42/374510.htm dead January 13, 2013 First Satellite Collision Called Threat in Space Moscow Times February 13, 2009 February 19, 2009 It had no propulsion system,Игорь Королев. Авария на $50 млн // Ведомости, № 26 (2296), 13 февраля 2009 and was no longer actively controlled.https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7885051.stm Russian and US satellites collide February 12, 2009 BBC News Russia has not commented on claims the satellite was out of control February 12, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090212214623/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7885051.stm February 12, 2009 livehttps://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE51A8IA20090211 U.S., Russian satellites collide in space Reuters Jim Wolf February 11, 2009 February 12, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090215175257/https://www.reuters.com/article/newsMaps/idUSTRE51A8IA20090211 February 15, 2009 live Fallout thumb|Flashes created by the tumbling main body of the Iridium 33 wreckage thumb|The collision resulted in significant debris in low Earth orbit. (2011) NASA, the U.S. space agency, initially estimated ten days after the collision that the satellite space incident had created at least 1,000 pieces of debris larger than 10 cm 0, in addition to many smaller ones.https://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2009-02-19-space-junk_N.htm Veronika Oleksyn What a mess! Experts ponder space junk problem Associated Press February 19, 2009 May 20, 2010 By July 2011, the U.S. Space Surveillance Network had catalogued over 2000 large debris fragments from the collision.Orbital Debris Quarterly News, July 2011 NASA Orbital Debris Program Office http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv15i3.pdf January 1, 2012 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20111020092342/http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv15i3.pdf October 20, 2011 NASA determined the risk to the International Space Station, which orbits about 430 km below the collision course, to be low,https://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7885051.stm Russian and US satellites collide February 12, 2009 February 12, 2009 BBC https://web.archive.org/web/20090212214623/http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/7885051.stm February 12, 2009 live Big satellites collide 500 miles over Siberia http://origin.foxnews.com/wires/2009Feb11/0,4670,SatelliteCollision,00.html https://web.archive.org/web/20110711022511/http://origin.foxnews.com/wires/2009Feb11/0,4670,SatelliteCollision,00.html dead July 11, 2011 The Associated Press Marcia Dunn February 12, 2009 May 20, 2010 as was any threat to the shuttle launch (STS-119) then planned for late February 2009. However, Chinese scientists have said that the debris does pose a threat to Chinese satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits,http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/12/content_10809710.htm China alert on U.S.-Russian satellite collision Xinhua February 12, 2009 February 12, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090213132717/http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/2009-02/12/content_10809710.htm February 13, 2009 dead and the ISS did have to perform an avoidance maneuver due to collision debris in March 2011. By December 2011, many smaller pieces of the debris were in an observable orbital decay towards Earth, and were expected to burn up in the atmosphere within one to two years. In 2016, Space News listed the collision as the second-biggest fragmentation event in history, with Kosmos-2251 and Iridium 33 producing, respectively, 1,668 and 628 pieces of catalogued debris, of which 1,141 and 364 pieces of tracked debris remained in orbit as of January 2016.http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/10-breakups-account-for-13-of-cataloged-debris/ 10 breakups account for 1/3 of catalogued debris Space News April 25, 2016 June 27, 2017 22 Nov 2020 https://web.archive.org/web/20201122163351/http://www.spacenewsmag.com/feature/10-breakups-account-for-13-of-cataloged-debris/ In 2024, 15 years after the collision, the U.S. Space Surveillance Catalog listed 916https://www.space-track.org/basicspacedata/query/class/satcat_debut/OBJECT_TYPE/DEBRIS/DECAY/null-val/INTLDES/~~1993-036/orderby/INTLDES%20asc/limit/1/metadata/true/emptyresult/show Query INTLDES like 1993-036 and DECAY is NULL and OBJECT_TYPE is DEBRIS space-track.org registration Feb 14, 2024 and 212https://www.space-track.org/basicspacedata/query/class/satcat_debut/OBJECT_TYPE/DEBRIS/DECAY/null-val/INTLDES/~~1997-051/orderby/INTLDES%20asc/limit/1/metadata/true/emptyresult/show Query INTLDES like 1997-051 and DECAY is NULL and OBJECT_TYPE is DEBRIS space-track.org registration Feb 14, 2024 pieces of debris still in orbit, respectively. A small piece of Kosmos-2251 satellite debris safely passed by the International Space Station at 2:38 a.m. EDT, Saturday, March 24, 2012, at a distance of approximately 120 m. As a precaution, ISS management had the six crew members on board the orbiting complex take refuge inside the two docked Soyuz rendezvous spacecraft until the debris had passed.Orbital Debris Safely Passes International Space Station 23 minutes 30 seconds Web Broadcast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Kw5zkf2ZfvA https://ghostarchive.org/varchive/youtube/20211220/Kw5zkf2ZfvA 2021-12-20 live National Aeronautics and Space Association March 23, 2012 March 23, 2012 A number of reports of phenomena in the U.S. states of Texas, Kentucky, and New Mexico were attributed to debris from the collision in the days immediately following the first reports of the incident in 2009,Joe Byrne http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Satellite_wreckage_falls_on_Kentucky_Texas_0215.html Satellite wreckage falls on Kentucky, Texas, New Mexico February 15, 2009 February 16, 2009 The Raw Story dead https://web.archive.org/web/20090217204710/http://rawstory.com/news/2008/Satellite_wreckage_falls_on_Kentucky_Texas_0215.html February 17, 2009 although NASA and the United States Strategic Command, which tracks satellites and orbital debris, did not announce any reentries of debris at the timeTony Phillips Fireball Mania http://spaceweather.com/glossary/fireballmania.htm National Aeronautics and Space Association February 14, 2009 December 14, 2011 and reported that these phenomena were unrelated to the collision.http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/6264797.html Metallic meteorite likely sent fireball across Texas sky Eric Berger Mark Carreau February 16, 2009 February 16, 2009 Houston Chronicle On February 13, 2009, witnesses in Kentucky heard sonic booms.http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/39600862.html Satellites Collide; Debris Seen Falling Over Kentucky February 13, 2009 February 16, 2009 WYMT News https://web.archive.org/web/20090217044025/http://www.wkyt.com/wymtnews/headlines/39600862.html February 17, 2009 dead The National Weather Service issued an information statement alerting residents of sonic booms due to the falling satellite debris.http://www.crh.noaa.gov/product.php?site=JKL&product=PNS&issuedby=JKL ...POSSIBLE SATELLITE DEBRIS FALLING ACROSS THE REGION... February 13, 2009 February 16, 2009 NOAA https://web.archive.org/web/20090217071308/http://www.crh.noaa.gov/product.php?site=JKL&product=PNS&issuedby=JKL February 17, 2009 live The Federal Aviation Administration also released a notice warning to pilots of the re-entering debris.William Harwood http://www.spaceflightnow.com/news/n0902/15debris/ FAA warns of possible falling satellite debris February 15, 2009 February 16, 2009 CBS News Space Place https://web.archive.org/web/20090219165031/http://spaceflightnow.com/news/n0902/15debris/ February 19, 2009 live Some reports include details that point to these phenomena being caused by a meteoroid shower. A very bright meteor over Texas on February 15, 2009, was mistaken for reentering debris by some witnesses.http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/texas-fireball-whats-known-so-far/ Texas Fireball: What's known so far Phil Plait February 15, 2009 Bad Astronomy blog February 17, 2009 November 24, 2010 https://web.archive.org/web/20101124134530/http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/badastronomy/2009/02/15/texas-fireball-whats-known-so-far/ dead This collision and numerous near-misses have renewed calls for mandatory disposal of defunct satellites (typically by deorbiting them, or at minimum, sending them to a graveyard orbit), but no such international law exists as of 2026. Nevertheless, some countries have adopted such a law domestically, such as France in December 2010.Glenn H Reynolds http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4303567.html Space Junk and the Law of Space Collisions March 12, 2009 Popular Mechanics March 18, 2009 https://web.archive.org/web/20090316163533/http://www.popularmechanics.com/science/air_space/4303567.html March 16, 2009 dead The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires all geostationary satellites launched after March 18, 2002 to commit to moving to a graveyard orbit at the end of their operational life.de Selding Peter June 28, 2004 FCC Enters Orbital Debris Debate http://www.space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_040628.html https://web.archive.org/web/20040701012010/http://www.space.com/spacenews/businessmonday_040628.html July 1, 2004 Space News See also 2007 Chinese anti-satellite missile test – another large space debris creation event ASM-135 ASAT – first-known anti-satellite weapon test Kessler syndrome (ablation cascade) – a positive feedback loop where space debris creates more debris until all orbits are prohibited Laser broom – a proposed method of getting rid of space debris Operation Burnt Frost Project West Ford – largest recorded space debris creation event Space Liability Convention References 30em External links news coverage of the 2009 satellite collision Russian and US satellites collide Burning debris from satellites spotted over several US cities Courtland Rachel February 13, 2009 Satellite crash prediction is plagued with uncertainty https://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16592-satellite-crash-prediction-is-plagued-with-uncertainty.html New Scientist https://web.archive.org/web/20090305073200/http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn16592-satellite-crash-prediction-is-plagued-with-uncertainty.html March 5, 2009 live February 13, 2009 Videos, interactive 3D Viewer files, 3D models, and high-resolution images available to better understand this collision (archived 2010) from Analytical Graphics, Inc. Detailed explanation, simulation, and visualization of this collision, and future projections, starting at 4:21. Video by ESA. Video: Satellite collision animation A Google Earth Browser plug-in simulation of the crash of two satellites, on Vimeo Satellite collision Category:February 2009 Category:Iridium Communications Category:Satellite collisions