Two communications satellites crashed into each other Wednesday in orbit, 475 to 500 miles above Siberia (though, being satellites, and moving at thousands of miles per hour, they weren’t “over Siberia” long). The Russian Kosmos-2251 (which massed about one ton) had been in orbit since 1993, but was out of fuel and “dead” since 1995. The 1,235-pound Iridium satellite was lofted in 1997.
The Washington Post quotes a NASA spokesman that there are about twenty NASA satellites which might be affected by the debris cloud. And, though the world media seems to be focusing on the potential threat to the International Space Station (ISS), the station’s orbital altitude of 270 miles puts it a long way from the debris created by the collision. As the orbits of the pieces decay, they will move lower, and could potentially affect the ISS, but in nearly 60,000 orbits thus far, the ISS has only had to maneuver to avoid collisions eight times.
Iridium says eight of the 65 satellites it has in orbit are spares, and it expects to move one of those spares to replace the lost satellite within a month. This Associated Press article notes that the rest of the Iridium satellites, which orbit at the same altitude, are among the satellites most endangered by this new debris field in orbit, but that the bulk of it should be far above the altitude of both the ISS and the upcoming Space Shuttle flights.
Russia Today‘s three-minute video story (in English) is available on YouTube.