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Russian and US satellites collide | Russian and US satellites collide |
(about 3 hours later) | |
US and Russian communications satellites have collided in space in the first such reported accident. | |
A satellite owned by the US company Iridium hit a defunct Russian satellite at high speed nearly 780km (485 miles) over Siberia on Tuesday, Nasa said. | A satellite owned by the US company Iridium hit a defunct Russian satellite at high speed nearly 780km (485 miles) over Siberia on Tuesday, Nasa said. |
The risk to the International Space Station and a shuttle launch planned for later this month is said to be low. | The risk to the International Space Station and a shuttle launch planned for later this month is said to be low. |
The impact produced massive clouds of debris, and the magnitude of the crash is not expected to be clear for weeks. | |
There are thousands of man-made objects orbiting the earth, but this is thought to be the first time two intact spacecraft have hit each other, the BBC's Andy Gallacher in Miami says. | |
The space station does have the capability of doing a debris-avoidance manoeuvre if necessary John YembrickNasa spokesman | |
Nasa is now tracking the hundreds of pieces of wreckage from the collision. | |
It is hoped that most of it will burn up in the Earth's atmosphere, our correspondent adds. | |
Shuttle launch | |
The concern is whether the debris will spread and pose any risk to the ISS, which is orbiting the earth some 435km below the course of the collision. | |
According to the Washington Post, a Nasa memo said officials determined the risk to be "elevated" but have estimated it as "very small and within acceptable limits". | |
Nasa spokesman John Yembrick said the ISS has the "capability of doing a debris-avoidance manoeuvre if necessary". | |
He said this had happened on just eight previous occasions during the course of its 60,000-plus orbits. | |
There are reported to be no plans to delay the launch of Nasa's space shuttle Discovery later this month. | |
'Extremely unusual' | |
Communications firm Iridium, based in Bethesda, Maryland, said it "lost an operational satellite" after it was struck on Tuesday by the Russian satellite. | |
It said its clients may experience some brief outages but was working to replace its 560kg satellite, launched in 1997, with one of its in-orbit spares within the next 30 days. | |
The firm described it as an "extremely unusual, very low-probability event", stressing that it was not caused by any fault on its part. | |
Some officials have said the Russian satellite, launched in 1993 and weighing 950kg (2,094lb), was out of control. | |
Some 6,000 satellites have been sent into orbit since 1957. | Some 6,000 satellites have been sent into orbit since 1957. |
Around 3,000 remain in operation, according to Nasa. |