The ISS astronauts have had to take refuge. Huge Russian satellite broke into 100 pieces for unknown reasons

This morning, the nine astronauts aboard the International Space Station had to take refuge in their ships due to a warning of a possible impact with a Russian satellite that had just disintegrated in low Earth orbit.

Emergency on board the ISS. It was around 2:00 UTC when Expedition 71 of the International Space Station received instructions from NASA to take shelter in their return ships as a precaution against possible impact with fragments of the satellite.

The nine astronauts immediately transferred to spacecraft docked at the station: four of them on SpaceX’s Crew Dragon, three on Russia’s Soyuz and two on Boeing’s brand-new Starliner.

An additional test for the Starliner. The Starliner spacecraft is currently at the space station as part of its certification process. It was supposed to have returned to Earth with its two crew members several days ago, but problems on board have delayed its return in order to analyse as much data as possible for future flights.

However, the two astronauts would have been able to return to Earth immediately if the impact warning had not been deactivated. One of the tests they carried out during their first days on board the space station was to lock themselves in the ship simulating an emergency. Now they have done it again, but in a real situation.

A Russian satellite generated more than 100 fragments. The cause of the situation was the Russian satellite Resurs-P1. Launched in 2013, it had been disused since 2021, but had run out of fuel to raise its orbit years ago, in 2017.

After slowly falling under the pull of Earth’s gravity, it was expected to re-enter later this year, but instead disintegrated for unknown reasons. U.S. Space Command confirmed more than 100 traceable fragments.

An anti-satellite test? Resurs-P1 was a massive 5,600kg satellite, so Russia would have to be really crazy to destroy it with an ASAT weapon, as it did in 2021 with another satellite. There are other options, such as the impact of another piece of space junk in orbit or a “natural” disintegration caused by the collapse of its empty tanks.

Whatever the case, this is not the first time that crew members on the International Space Station have had to take shelter from the potential impact of space debris. There are more than 7,500 active satellites orbiting the Earth, and they share space with 45,300 trackable objects.

Image | NASA, Roscosmos

In Xataka | SpaceX is building a ship to destroy the International Space Station. At the request of NASA