Satellites Collide

what are the odds?

I guess one of their GPSs was on the fritz.

another new game to play: spacewalking with a gps. it may beat scubadiving and skydiving.lol

Here's an article showing the debris
http://www.universetoday.com/2009/02/12/images-video-interac...

I suspect it was a targeted take out. I don't see how this was accidental. Doesn't NORAD keep track of all that stuff?

We can track the myriad satellites but the affected sats are powerless to do anything. Not designed to move once it's in place.

That particular sat is part of the iridium network composed of some 60 odd sats. Each are uniquely situated but the overall network has redundancy built in.

sats up there are powerless to stop. We did take out one of ours using kinetc missile. I doubt we'll see that again due to the current administration being against weapons in space and the sat belongs to a foreign gov't.

Kosmos-2251, also spelled Cosmos
Program: Strela 2

USSPACECOM ID.: 22675
Int'l Code:1993-036-A
Program: Strela
Launch Site: Plesetsk.
Launch Complex: LC132/1
Launch Vehicle: Kosmos 3
Mass: 900 kg (1,980 lb)
Perigee: 778 km (483 mi)
Apogee: 803 km (498 mi)
Inclination: 74.00 deg
Period: 100.70 min.
Launch Date:June 16, 1993
Deactivated : February 2009, at 9:55PM EST

Replaced Cosmos 2112. Kosmos-2251 had a complete Communications failure and went out of service and control two years later in 1995.

The smashup 500 miles (800 kilometers) over Siberia on Tuesday February 10th 2009 involved a derelict out of control Russian spacecraft designed for military communications and a working U.S. Iridium satellite, which serves commercial customers as well as the U.S. Department of Defense.

Iridium 33 was part of a planned commercial communications network comprised of a constellation of 66 LEO spacecraft. The spacecraft was 3-axis stabilized, with a hydrazine propulsion system.
Iridium 33 used L-Band to provide global communications services through portable handsets.

Iridium 33

NORAD ID: 24946
Int'l Code: 1997-051C
Launch Site:Baikonur Cosmodrome
Launch Complex: 81/23
Launch Vehicle:Proton-K carrier
Perigee: 783.1 km
Apogee: 798.2 km
Inclination: 86.4°
Period: 100.5 min
Launch date: September 14, 1997
Deactivated : February 2009, at 9:55PM EST

Kosmos-2251, a retired Strela2 satellite, collided with Iridium 33, resulting in the destruction of both spacecraft. Russia has not commented on claims the satellite was out of control.

Then I read this:
http://www.snikte.net/jottings/2009/02/

Hmmm

So what does everyone actually think about this?

Everything above is a compiling of my Google searches.

I don't like man-made stuff 'splodin above my head!
(ok...ANYTHING, really!!)

I once had some software that gave a visual view of the orbits for all current satellites (and ex-satellites!). It astounded me that more didn't collide and how we are able to even launch anything past them all.

Not sure, but the software might have been Stellarium.

BobDee- Re: your article link- That's what really bothers me about global warming (both sides), etc.

Who in "charge" DOESN'T have their head up their a** and is thinking pragmatically?? Anyone? Hello?

They are moved all the time, they carry a fuel supply of one sort or another, for this purpose. Satellites have decaying orbits due to Earths gravity and have to be trimed all the time on a weekly basis. There is enough fuel to last the expected life of the bird.

For those that want to know more:
http://books.google.com/books?id=2ZerG7NucqEC&pg=PA40&lpg=PA...

I suppose Iridium 33 could have been jockeyed a few degrees to the left or right and saved a few million dollars!

that crazy!

Those computer trajectories don't look reasonable. They show the debris continuing the same general direction as the initial trajectory of the satellite before impact. That goes against basic physics.

We have seen what happens when two cars collide, they push each other in a new direction, and both can end up off the road.