NASA has ordered astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter in their emergency capsules by the explosion of a Russian satellite that exploded into 100 pieces 355 kilometers in low Earth orbit. The nine crew members had to enter their respective ships as a precaution.
Moments of tension were experienced inside the International Space Station, after NASA had to carry out some safety measures to prevent an accident. From the official account of the International Space Stationpublished in X who had to take refuge in their respective spaceships as a “standard precautionary measure after being informed of a satellite breakup at an altitude close to that of the station last Wednesday“.
Mission Control continued to monitor the debris path and, after about an hour, was cleared to the crew exited their spacecraft and the station resumed normal operations. Overnight on Wednesday, a Russian Earth-observing satellite called RESURS-P1 broke up into more than 100 pieces in low Earth orbit at 355 kilometers (220 miles).Because of the low orbit of this debris cloud, we estimate it will be weeks or months before the danger has passed.“, explained from LeoLabs for Reuters
NASA and Elon Musk’s plan to tow the International Space Station
The useful life of the International Space Station (ISS) is close to coming to an end, so NASA came up with a plan with Elon Musk’s SpaceX to tow the structure to a certain point in the Pacific Ocean and let it fall in a controlled manner to Earth. The US agency reported that it will be operational until 2030, more than 25 years since its creation.
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced that he signed a contract with the company SpaceXfrom the billionaire Elon Muskto create a tugboat called “American Deorbiter Vehicle” which will cost 843 million dollars, which will be responsible for transporting the structure to a specific space in the Pacific Ocean to drop it on Earth.
NASA intends to move the scientific experiments that took place on the space station to commercially owned stations and stated that the decision to retire the ISS defines a transition that seeks to invest funds in operations in low Earth orbit, the area of space closest to Earth.
“The private sector is technically and financially capable of developing and operating commercial low-Earth orbit destinations, with assistance from NASA.“said Phil McAlister, director of commercial space for the US government agency.
