Source: Xinhua
02-13-2009 12:05
Special Report: Tech MaxMOSCOW, Feb. 12 (Xinhua) -- A U.S. Iridium satellite collided with a Russian military satellite on Tuesday, a commander of the Russian Space Forces confirmed on Thursday.
The U.S. Iridium 33 satellite collided with Russia's Cosmos 2251 satellite at an altitude of 800 km at 19:56 Moscow time (1656GMT) on Tuesday, Alexander Yakushin, first deputy commander of the space forces, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.
The Cosmos 2251 satellite was launched in 1993 and had stopped functioning since 1995, he said.
The space forces' cosmic space monitoring equipment is following the debris produced by the collision at altitudes of 500 km to 1,300 km, the official said.
"Data on the amount of debris is being specified," Yakushin said.
Earlier in the day, the Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) confirmed the collision.
"It is quite likely that the satellites could have collided, as their orbits were very close to each other," Roscosmos press secretary Alexander Vorobyov said in an interview with Russian TV station.
Based on the current circumstances, the debris generated in the collision does not pose a threat to the international space station (ISS), he said, adding that Russia will continue its probe into the incident for more details.
Vorobyov's remarks were supported by Roscosmos' press officer Nasyrov Demyan in a telephone interview with Xinhua.
A spokesman for the agency's flight control center, Valery Lyndin, told Xinhua the ISS is operating well and Roscosmos is collecting and processing relevant data.
Itar-Tass quoted a Russian expert, who declined to give his name, as saying the debris created in the collision could threaten defunct satellites developed in the Soviet era, which were equipped with nuclear reactors.
The debris is scattered in different directions and might collide with Soviet satellites drifting at a similar altitude, thus forming belts of radioactive debris, the expert said.
Nuclear reactors on these satellites, which served the former Soviet Union's navy, were used to provide reliable, durable and comparatively low-cost energy for the satellites, he said.
The U.S. space agency NASA said a Russian satellite and a privately owned U.S. communications satellite collided in space at 11:55 a.m. EST (1655 GMT) on Tuesday, causing two massive clouds of debris.
The collision occurred at roughly 800 km above the Arctic, an altitude used by satellites that monitor weather and carry telephone communications among other things.
News agencies reported that NASA believes the risk posed to the ISS by the collision is low, as the space station orbits at a lower altitude than satellites.
Editor:Yang Jie
