Satellite Crash

This article is about two satellites, one American and one Russian, that collided while in orbit 500 miles over Siberia, Russia. This has been the first crash between man-made satellites ever, and poses new problems for scientists worldwide. The crash has created a large cloud of speeding debris that is a threat to other unmanned satellites in close orbits. The Russian satellite was an old military communications device that was unoperational. The American satellite was owned by a company called Iridium based in Bethesda, Maryland. It was also used for commercial reasons and by the US Department of Defense. Both parties deny responsibility for the crash. The Russians said they could not be responsible because they were not in control of their derelict satellite, and said that NASA and Iridium could have easily altered the course of their satellite in order to avoid the collision. Both the US and the Russians are monitoring the progress of the debris closely, to see if their will be any other collisions with other satellites. Their is concern from both governments that the debris will start a chain reaction of collisions and threaten manned craft such as the international spacestation Roscosomos, which has a crew of three. There is little chance of this, but the situation will require close observation.

This information affects anyone country that has satellites or spacecraft in orbit. The ever-growing wall of man-made debris and unoperational satellites is beginning to make a sort of second atmosphere of earth, which could make it difficult to launch more spacecraft in the future. Perhaps this is a message that science is progressing at a faster rate than man can handle.