A Russian satellite has shattered into hundreds of pieces in low Earth orbit, forcing astronauts aboard the International Space Station to take cover. US Space Command is monitoring the debris swarm as there are no details yet on what may have caused the breakup of the Russian Earth observation satellite RESURS-P1, which will be decommissioned in 2022.
The incident occurred around 4 p.m. Wednesday in an orbit near the space station, prompting the American astronauts on board to take refuge in their spacecraft for about an hour: radar from the American space tracking company LeoLabs detected that the satellite continued to release several fragments for hours.
The US Space Command, which has its own global network of space-tracking radars, said the satellite immediately created “over 100 pieces of trackable debris.” Large debris-generating events in orbit are rare but of growing concern as space becomes crowded with satellite networks vital to daily life on Earth, from broadband Internet and communications to basic navigation services.
Russia sparked international outrage in 2021 when it struck one of its defunct satellites in orbit to test an anti-satellite missile for Earth, creating thousands of pieces of debris. The prospect of satellite collisions and space warfare has added urgency to calls from space advocates and lawyers for countries to establish an international space traffic management mechanism, which currently does not exist.
The ~6,000 kg satellite was in a nearly circular orbit at ~355 km at the time of the event.
LeoLabs will continue to monitor the resulting debris cloud and provide more details in the near future.
— LeoLabs (@LeoLabs_Space) June 27, 2024