U.S. (Iridium) And Russian Satellites Collide

[Ian David]

Source: CBS News

A commercial Iridium communications satellite collided with a Russian satellite or satellite fragment, Tuesday, creating a cloud of wreckage in low-Earth orbit, officials said Wednesday. The international space station is not threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other satellites in similar orbits.

"Everybody is saying the risk is minimal to NASA assets," said an agency manager who asked not to be identified.

Once source said U.S. Space Command was tracking about 280 pieces of debris, most of it from the defunct Russian satellite. A spokesman for U.S. Space Command was not aware of the incident but he said he would try to track down additional details. Calls to Iridium Satellite LLC were not immediately returned.

Iridium operates a constellation of some 66 satellites, along with orbital spares, to support satellite telephone operations around the world. The spacecraft are in orbits tilted 86.4 degrees to the equator at an altitude of about 485 miles.

Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/02/11/tech/main4792976.shtml

---

See also:

Iridium (satellite)
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The Iridium satellite constellation is a system of 66 active communication satellites with spares in orbit and on the ground. It allows worldwide voice and data communications using handheld satellite phones. The Iridium network is unique in that it covers the whole earth, including poles, oceans and airways.

<snip>

History

Iridium communications service was launched on November 1, 1998. The first Iridium call was made by then-Vice President of the United States Al Gore<1>. Motorola provided the technology and major financial backing.

The founding company went into Chapter 11 bankruptcy nine months later on August 13, 1999. The handsets could not operate as promoted until the entire constellation of satellites were in place, causing a massive initial capital cost running into the billions of dollars. The increased coverage of terrestrial cellular networks (e.g. GSM) and the rise of roaming agreements between cellular providers proved to be fierce competition. The cost of service was prohibitive for many users, and the bulkiness and expense of the handheld devices when compared to terrestrial cellular mobile phones discouraged adoption among potential users.

<snip>

Present status

Iridium Satellite LLC claims to have 285,000 subscribers as of early August 2008 (compared to 203,000 in July 2007). Revenue for the second quarter of 2008 was US$81.7 million with EBITDA of US$25.8 million.<6>.

The system is being used extensively by the U.S. Department of Defense through the DoD gateway in Hawaii.<7> The DoD pays $36 million a year for unlimited access for up to 20,000 users<8> The commercial gateway in Tempe, Arizona, provides voice, data, and paging services for commercial customers on a global basis. Typical customers include maritime, aviation, government, the petroleum industry, scientists, and frequent world travelers.

Iridium satellites are now an essential component of communications with remote science camps, especially the Amundsen-Scott South Pole Station. As of December 2006, an array of twelve Iridium modems was put online, providing 24/7 data services to the station for the first time. Total bandwidth is 28.8 kbit/s.<9>

More:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iridium_(satellite)

[MinneapolisMatt]

1. That's odd.

n/t

[slackmaster]

2. This is Bush's fault

Sorry, old habit.

[Ghost Dog]

3. Let's hope that was an accident.

then.

[AndyA]

4. At some point, all of the countries who've left junk floating around in space

are going to have to go up there and get it. If we don't it's going to look like the park on the morning of July 5th, after everyone leaves their litter scattered about.

Humans are trashy, and apparently it's not enough that we trash Earth, we have to do it to space as well. No wonder why the aliens are watching us. :tinfoilhat:

[Ian David]

6. I proposed this to someone at NASA during a Q&A when I was visiting.

My suggestion is that as we decommission space shuttles, we leave them in orbit and turn them into orbiting snow plows in front of the space station.

You'd send the crew home in the Mir capsules, affix maneuvering rockets and navigation equipment inside the cargo bay, and just use the mass of the shuttle to plow into debris. You could even start filling it with garbage and junk from the space station, since the more mass it had inside it, the more effective it would be anyway.

[crikkett]

11. I hope they fish the plastic out of the Pacific first.

[psychopomp]

16. The amount of debris orbiting the Earth has reached a critical level

Scientists say that collisions may continue at ever-increasing rates making it unsafe to launch manned missions into space.

For decades, space experts have worried that a speeding bit of orbital debris might one day smash a large spacecraft into hundreds of pieces and start a chain reaction, a slow cascade of collisions that would expand for centuries, spreading chaos through the heavens.

In the last decade or so, as scientists came to agree that the number of objects in orbit had surpassed a critical mass — or, in their terms, the critical spatial density, the point at which a chain reaction becomes inevitable — they grew more anxious.

Early this year, after a half-century of growth, the federal list of detectable objects (four inches wide or larger) reached 10,000, including dead satellites, spent rocket stages, a camera, a hand tool and junkyards of whirling debris left over from chance explosions and destructive tests.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/02/06/science/space/06orbi.html?ex=1328418000&en=16f9c6b2615d4e62&ei=5090&partner=rssuserland&emc=rss



Warning of catastrophe from mass of 'space junk'

'Failure to act would be folly,' says report to UN

The amount of debris orbiting the Earth has reached a critical level. Old satellite parts, solar panels and the odd astronaut's lost glove now pose serious risks to space missions. A report from the International Association for the Advancement of Space Safety is calling for stringent international laws to be brought in urgently to avert a tragedy.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2008/feb/24/spaceexplorationspacejunk?gusrc=rss&feed=science

[JVS]

19. All that "junk" is a great source of already launched material for when we want to build ships up...

there.

[The Doctor.]

22. But it's SO lovely to look at when it falls down.

:freak: :freak:

[Captain Hilts]

5. LOVE your photographs!

[Barrett808]

17. "I am perfect. I am NOMAD."

Yes, I'm a geek.

[predfan]

7. This is why I play the lottery. What're the odds?

[Ian David]

8. Pretty damn good, really.

JOURNAL
OF GUIDANCE, CONTROL,
AND
DYNAMICS
Vol. 29, No.
3,
May-June 2006
Satellite Collision Probability Enhancements


More:
http://74.125.47.132/search?q=cache:HGuw4OTlVUQJ:www.centerforspace.com/downloads/files/pubs/JGCD.V29.N03.pdf+satellite+collision+odds&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=1&gl=us

[predfan]

9. Ian, my man, a little help here. What're the odds?

[Ian David]

10. Here, I found it on Fox "News" in English

NASA Worried About Shuttle-Space-Junk Collision

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Next month's shuttle flight to the Hubble Space Telescope faces an increased risk of getting hit by space junk because it will be in a higher, more littered orbit than usual, NASA said Monday.

Managers at NASA's highest levels will need to sign off on the mission because of the increased risk.

New number-crunching puts the odds of a catastrophic strike by orbital debris including bits of space junk at about 1-in-185 during Atlantis' upcoming mission to Hubble.

That compares to 1-in-300 odds for a shuttle flight to the international space station, shuttle program director John Shannon said Monday.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,418741,00.html

[PfcHammer]

12. Major iridium flare and 2 body problem rolled into one

[Downwinder]

13. Thought they wee supposed to pull then all in

after the bankruptcy.

[Phoenix-Risen]

20. Ten years later, Iridium is alive and well in Tempe.

Not so fast!


Iridium satellite phones second life

Iridium satellite phones second life
Feb. 1, 2009 12:00 AM
The Arizona Republic
Ten years later, Iridium is alive and well in Tempe.

The high-profile Motorola venture crashed in a spectacular 1999 bankruptcy after its technologically flawless but pricey satellite phone system failed to catch on with consumers.

Only a handful of employees remained in 2000, when Iridium Satellites LLC paid $25 million for the array of orbiting satellites that Motorola and other investors spent more than $5 billion to develop.

The new leadership refocused the business on industrial customers, not consumers. The company, now profitable, is working on a $2.7 billion replacement of the aging satellite network.

http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/business/articles/2009/01/31/20090131biz-iridium0201.html

[bananas]

14. If you've never seen an Iridium Flare ...

They are amazingly bright, but only last a second or two.

http://www.wikihow.com/Find-an-Iridium-Flare

How to Find an Iridium Flare

An Iridium flare is a specific type of satellite flare (also known as satellite glint) made when the antennas of an Iridium communication satellite reflect sunlight directly onto the surface of the Earth. Whoever is looking at the right spot at the right time will see a brief but bright flare in the sky which is sometimes brighter than Venus and even the Moon (when it's not full). However, you don't have to depend on sheer luck to see an Iridium flare. With data giving the location of the satellites around the Earth, a program can easily calculate the time at which an observer will see the sun's reflection on the antennas.

Steps

<snip>

[Crowman1979]

15. How about satellite recycling?

They can take it apart in space and then use GPS technology to drop off the seperated materials at a specified location nearby a designated recycling lab.

[lovuian]

18. Well it could be Satellite Wars

Its like Rods of gods
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWJw8Wn3jpk
about the Militarization of Space the Star Wars of the Future but this time its not a movie

I think it was intentional

[bushmeister0]

25. I agree.

No way this was an accident.

Iridium is trading at, what, $3.00 a share? Iridium is what the US military uses for their satilite phones, and Russia is suddenly being all friendly letting us route our materiel into Afghanistan after just giving Kyrgyzstan $4 billion to close down our military base in Manas?

What are the chances?

This whole story is a massive mind fuck. I'm not buying it for a second.

I'm not sure what the hell is going on, but what is being peddled as fact right now should be taken with a great deal of salt.

[Jack_DeLeon]

21. I'm thinking this was a Russian weapon test...

testing their attack satellites.

[BrightKnight]

24. I bet that it secured the budgets for a few infrastructure protection projects. - n/t

[bushmeister0]

26. The Chinese just did something similar. I agree.

No way this was an accident. I think it's all about Afghanistan. Iridium is the only way we communicate over there. This is equivalent to the mujahedin using Charlie Wilson's shoulder-fired Stinger air defense missiles to level the playing field.

Very scary!

[dysfunctional press]

31. that was my first thought as well.

nt

[bobthedrummer]

23. Alvin "Buzzy" Krongard (George Tenet's chum) is a Director at Iridium

Fwiw, here's a related archived thread I started April 11, 2008 based on a National Security Archive Electronic Briefing Book update that's worthy of bookmarking.

"U.S. Reconnaissance Satellites: Domestic Targets"
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=103x352054

Good night.

[bushmeister0]

27. USAF's new slogans. "Air Dominance!" "Space Dominance!" "Cyberspace Dominance."

From their creepy new ads.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=3349087&mesg_id=3349087

I say the USAF is feeling a little left out in the whole machismo race to the bottom. God, apparenty, thinks the same way everybody else does about the USAF: "Pussies.

They want to get some of that old Luftwaffe mojo going, again.

[bobthedrummer]

30. It's all part of "full spectrum dominance"-and that was a key component of PNACers

both in and out of uniform.

[bushmeister0]

28. Whoa! Is that the "Changling" from Star TreK? I just noticed.

Is this what ran into the damn thing?

[unblock]

29. crazy ivan?

[wtmusic]

32. Love it..somehow they know that most of the debris is Russian

:rofl:

Bullshit.

[Ian David]

33. See what happens when Iridium doesn't pay the Russian mob? Your stuff gets broken.

That would be a good article for The Onion: "Russian Mafia Orbits Satellite, Offers 'Protection' from Collisions for a Price."

[KakistocracyHater]

34. how soon til they invent the job of space-garbage collector?

?

[Ian David]

35. Soon...