A functioning commercial satellite owned by a U.S. company was destroyed in what is believed to be the first ever in-orbit collision with another satellite, according to industry officials familiar with the details.
The crash, which happened Tuesday in low-earth orbit, involved one of the satellites owned by closely held Iridium Satellite LLC and a defunct Russian spy satellite. The Russian craft was spinning out of control, industry officials said, and was being monitored by Pentagon organizations that keep track of space debris and prevent in-orbit collisions from damaging or destroying both commercial and government satellites.
Iridium, Bethesda, Md., which provides voice and data services for more than 300,000 subscribers globally, said one of its spacecraft suffered a collision with a "non-operational Russian satellite," and was lost. The company said the event "has minimal impact on Iridium's service" and its remaining constellation "is healthy." The company's more than 60 satellites include backup capacity in orbit designed to withstand the loss of a single satellite.
While Pentagon brass, satellite industry executives and NASA leaders for years have publicly expressed concern about the dangers of orbital debris, there has been less concern about potential collisions between satellites. That's because the ground-based and space-based reconnaissance tools available to the Pentagon generally were considered adequate to keep close track of larger objects.
When satellites reach the end of their useful lives, they often are parked in remote orbits where they are unlikely to endanger working satellites, and sometimes they are pulled out of orbit and sent to burn up while re-entering the atmosphere. But if a satellite's onboard computers or other systems fail, or it runs out of battery power, it can be difficult for ground operators to maintain control. Without such orders from the ground, satellites can act unpredictably and move around erratically.
Iridium is analyzing whether the debris may impact its remaining fleet. |