The International Space Station (ISS), whose days are numbered since it is scheduled to crash into Earth in less than 10 years, has just experienced an alarming situation. And, this time, it has nothing to do with a false emergency signal, but rather a Russian satellite has broken into more than 100 pieces in space and forced astronauts to take shelter.
According to reports from ReutersUS space agencies have reported that a missing Russian satellite has broken into more than a hundred pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to shelter for about an hour; and that has been added to the mass of space debris that is already in space.
At the moment no details have been shared about the possible cause of the Russian Earth observation satellite, RESURS-P1, which the country led by Vladimir Putin declared dead two years ago. However, the US Space Command, which tracks the debris swarm, has noted that at that time There was no immediate threat to other satellites.
An event that took place around 04:00 Spanish mainland time this Friday, when Expedition 71 of the ISS received instructions from NASA to take refuge in their ships The astronauts were allowed to return for about an hour as a precaution against the possible impact of multiple fragments of the Russian satellite. After 60 minutes, the astronauts were able to leave again and resume normal operations. For its part, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which operated the satellite, has not commented on the matter.
The US Space Command, which has a global network of space-tracking radars, has said the satellite broke up and immediately created “over 100 pieces of traceable debris”In fact, the company has detected at least 180 pieces. And although these events are rare, the truth is that they are not worrying anymore as space fills up with networks of vital satellites, such as communications, and others that are no longer used.
According to what has been learned, the breakup of the Russian satellite occurred at an altitude of about 355 kilometers in low Earth orbit, which is a popular region of space where thousands of small and large satellites operate, such as SpaceX’s Starlink network. . “Due to the low orbit of this debris cloud, we estimate that It will be weeks or months before the danger has passed.“LeoLabs said in a statement to the same medium.
