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Every year there are more objects and more space junk circling the Earth. If any of those objects collide, it could result in a major disaster affecting communications and ground services. An incident like that almost happened last night.
As the BBC reports, yesterday there was concern regarding a segment of an old Russian satellite (COSMOS 2004) and a discarded Chinese rocket (CZ-4C R / B). It was calculated that the two pieces of space debris could pass within 25 meters of each other. Considering its combined weight was more than 2,800 kilograms (6,173 pounds) and its speed was 32,800 mph, a collision could potentially be very serious, so fingers crossed.
LeoLabs, which provides space debris tracking and collision avoidance services for low Earth orbit, kept an eye on the two pieces of debris as they got closer and closer. Yesterday, the company published a visualization of the trajectory of both segments and the potential for collision, which you can see in the tweet above. It is understandable why it was classified as “high risk” for a collision.
Fortunately, LeoLabs has since reported that there was “no signs of collision“They confirmed this using data from their Kiwi Space Radar, which only showed a CZ-4C R / B passing as a single object with no signs of debris, meaning the object had not hit anything else. Astrodynamic from the University of Texas in Austin has since calculated that the fault distance ended up being 70 meters, which is still incredibly close.
With companies like SpaceX planning to launch tens of thousands of Starlink satellites, the potential for collisions in orbit will only increase, and with it, the need for a cost-effective and efficient method of recovering space junk. It’s something that ESA has been asking for since 2013.
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