Space Station Keeps Dodging Debris From China's 2007 Satellite Weapon Test (msn.com) 37
fjo3 shares a report from the Washington Post: The International Space Station had to fire thrusters from a docked spacecraft last month to avoid a piece of debris that has been circling the globe for the nearly 18 years since the Chinese government blasted apart one of its own satellites in a weapons test. The evasive maneuver was the second in just six days for the space station, which has four NASA astronauts and three Russian cosmonauts aboard. That is the shortest interval ever between such actions, illustrating the slowly worsening problem of space junk in orbit. Debris is an increasingly vexing issue not only for NASA, but also for companies such as SpaceX and OneWeb seeking to protect the thousands of small satellites they send into space to provide high-speed internet. The debris cloud from China's 2007 destruction of the Fengyun 1C satellite remains one of the most persistent threats in orbit, with about 3,500 fragments still posing collision risks to spacecraft. Since 2020, the ISS has performed 15 debris-avoidance maneuvers.
The evasive maneuver was performed after a Space Force warning. According to the report, Space Force now tracks over 47,200 objects in orbit, issuing approximately 23 daily collision warnings -- up from just six per day five years ago.
The evasive maneuver was performed after a Space Force warning. According to the report, Space Force now tracks over 47,200 objects in orbit, issuing approximately 23 daily collision warnings -- up from just six per day five years ago.
Kessler syndrome when ? (Score:1)
nice new threat for 2025 - Kessler syndrome starting in LEO. because we didnt learn anything from pandemics.
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So it seems the USA tested smashing up satellites first, then Russia, & now China.
This Wikipedia page tells me the Soviets did it first:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
It's been a known problem from the start & it's a highly irresponsible thing to do but they went ahead & did it anyway.
The difference between the USA tests and that of other nations is the USA tested anti-satellite weapons against satellites that were already in unstable orbits so that any debris created would burn up in the atmosphere fairly quickly. Has there been any news of ISS dodging debris from American anti-satellite weapon test? If so then I'd really like to see it.
The ISS has an orbit about 260 miles up. USA anti-satellite t
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TFA doesn't seem to mention what the previous thing it dodged is. I'm pretty sure it wasn't Chinese though, or they would surely have mentioned that.
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It's an economic opportunity. Just wait until they send young men to go die reducing their Panama Canal transit fees.
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In the case of Israel and Russia, it's largely ideologically motivated.
The people pulling Trump's strings just want cheaper shipping.
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Just wait until they send young men to go die reducing their Panama Canal transit fees.
It's unlikely anyone will die if the USA takes over the Panama Canal.
First thing that would prevent any death is that in the contract that effected the transfer of the canal to Panama was a clause allowing for the USA to take it back. Expect a repossession to consist of some phone calls and some people in business suits showing up in Panama with papers. It could be the people working there now keep their jobs, they just have new management.
Second, there's not much of a military force in Panama and so Pana
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in the contract that effected the transfer of the canal to Panama was a clause allowing for the USA to take it back.
Bullshit.
The treaty granted the USA the right to act unilaterally (without waiting for an invitation or asking permission) to defend the canal in case of hostile military action.
There is no repossession clause.
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And even if there was, Panama is unlikely to just give it up on the basis of a contract negotiated under unequal conditions.
Re: It goes both ways (Score:2)
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I thought the stuff in LEO was temporary, due to residual atmosphere friction. Wouldn't the earlier tests debris be gone by now?
Also, wouldn't collisions in LEO only leave LEO debris? (If the answer to this is no, that might allow the answer to the first to be no.)
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Chinese space station has been dodging Starlink satellites too. These things go both ways.
China's Tiangong space station orbits at 350 to 450 km.
Starlink satellites orbit at 550 km.
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The Chinese have had to dodge Starlink satellites moving from one orbit to another.
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The Chinese have had to dodge Starlink satellites moving from one orbit to another.
It's getting tiresome how these oligarchs treat everything like they own it.
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The sad thing is they pretty much do own it all now. The government, the ability to spam LEO, things you used to own but now rent, the police...
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Re: It goes both ways (Score:1)
Duh (Score:1)
China ruins literally everything.
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Just because someone does something for benefits that turns out to be a terrible idea, does not mean that others should be allowed to do it as well. If one government pressed a button to get a trillion dollars, but killed half the population of that country, it wouldn't be a good idea to let other countries press that button. Not because they shouldn't be allowed to have a trillion dollars, but because they shouldn't be allowed to knowingly kill half their population. The first country didn't know any bette
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Sure. The US should do all it can. Which includes education to not repeat their mistakes. Currently, China produces more than double the amount of pollution and environmental damage than the US does, while KNOWING the harms it can and will do. And they don't give a shit. It's disgusting how dirty it is over there.
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Yeah. And they lied to everyone about it - including the government. They should (and hopefully will one day) be punished significantly. Still doesn't mean everyone else should jump on the bandwagon and accelerate the exact same problem further. It's not worth it.
From bad to worse..marketing? (Score:2)
Space Force now tracks over 47,200 objects in orbit, issuing approximately 23 daily collision warnings -- up from just six per day five years ago.
Wow. The advertised number when I worked for them back in the 90s was 18,000+ objects tracked. Is the actual problem that much worse, or just our terrestrial marketing?
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It's worse, but they're also probably tracking smaller objects.