NASA spacecraft, Russian satellite expected to pass in low-Earth orbit at altitude of 373 miles
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A U.S. spacecraft and a Russian satellite were expected to pass dangerously close to one another early Wednesday, potentially resulting in a low-Earth orbit collision, space officials warned.
NASA and the U.S. Department of Defense were monitoring the expected close pass between a Thermosphere lonosphere Mesosphere Energetics and dynamics mission (TIMED) U.S. NASA spacecraft and Russia's Cosmos 2221 satellite, the space agency said in a news release.
Both orbiting spacecraft are non-maneuverable and were expected to make their closest pass at about 1:30 a.m. EST on Wednesday at an altitude of about 373 miles (600 km), NASA said.
As of 8:50 a.m., NASA had issued no further updates on the situation.
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An artist’s impression of the TIMED spacecraft in orbit above Earth. (NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory)
While the two spacecraft were expected to miss each other, the space agency said that a collision could result in a significant amount of debris.
NASA and the Department of Defense are continuing to monitor the situation.
An artist’s impression of the TIMED spacecraft in orbit, scanning Earth. (Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)
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Fragments of rocket hardware and old satellites litter low-Earth orbit with space debris. Each piece of debris is orbiting the Earth at about 17,000 mph, according to Fox Weather.
Scientists are becoming more concerned about the growing number of satellites and space junk that could collide and cause a dangerous with other objects in orbit, according to LiveScience.
While a cascade has yet to occur, the International Space Station in 2022 had to quickly be maneuvered out of the path of incoming debris from a Russian satellite, Cosmos 1408. Russia destroyed the satellite on Nov. 15, 2021 in a kinetic anti-satellite test that generated a cloud of debris, including some 1,500 pieces of trackable size.
