The bone in question was a piece of debris created during bone disintegration 23106 (Pegasus R / B). This is the top stage of a Pegasus launcher, which was launched on May 19, 1994 and disbanded on June 3, 1996
The space station pictured from SpaceX Crew Dragon November 2021
The space station was photographed by SpaceX Crew Dragon Endeavor during the spacecraft’s departure ahead of its return to Earth on November 8, 2021. Credit: NASA’s Johnson Center
Last Friday (December 3, 2021) at 1:58 Eastern time, the Russian spacecraft’s Progress 79 engine, connected to the space station for 2 minutes and 41 seconds, was activated to slightly lower the station’s orbit. This maneuver provided a crisis separation gap for Pegasus rocket debris (Bone 39915) that ballistic experts followed. The space station’s 66th crew was out of danger, NASA said in a statement.
Maneuvering to avoid pre-detected debris, or PDAM, is compatible with NASA flight controllers, the Russian space agency and in particular the Russians responsible for operating the Progress spacecraft and the station’s other international partners.
Bone 39915 was a piece of debris formed during bone disintegration 23106 (Pegasus R / B). This is the top stage of a Pegasus launcher, which was launched on May 19, 1994 and disbanded on June 3, 1996.
This is not the first time in recent weeks that International Space Station operators have been forced to change course. A few weeks earlier, on November 15, Russia conducted an experiment with direct anti-satellite weapons from the ground to destroy one of its orbiting satellites that has been in orbit since 1982, creating a trail of at least 1,500 low-trajectory debris traces that threaten astronauts.
The missile launched by Russia for the test was a sample – Nudol PL-19, an interceptor designed to intercept ballistic missiles that also functions as an anti-satellite weapon. The US, Russia and China are competing with each other in the development of space missiles that can not only destroy ballistic missiles in the phase of movement towards the target in the middle of space but also intercept satellites in orbit.
The destruction of the inactive Russian satellite, known as Cosmos 1408, caused seven crew members aboard the International Space Station – four Americans, two Russians and a German – to take cover several times as the station’s orbit intersected with the waste stream and seal some of the station’s models to prevent oxygen leakage. Holes will open in the wall of the station. The collision occurred about 500 miles above the ground and 80 miles above the orbit of the space station.
These fragments have joined more than 27,000 pieces of orbital debris, or “space debris,” are being tracked by the U.S. Department of Defense’s Global Space Surveillance Network (SSN) sensors. / A much larger number of waste components that are too small to track, but large enough to threaten human flights in space and robotic missions – hovering in the space environment close to Earth. Because both debris and spacecraft move at extremely high speeds (about 15,700 km / h in the Earth’s low orbit), damage to even a tiny piece of orbital debris in the spacecraft can cause trouble.
The growing population of space debris increases the potential danger to all space vehicles, including the International Space Station and other manned spacecraft such as SpaceX’s Crew Dragon.
NASA takes the threat of collisions with space debris seriously and has a long-standing set of guidelines on how to deal with any potential collision threat to the space station. These guidelines, part of a larger body of decision-making aids have been incorporated into flight rules The probability of a collision is sufficient that evasive action or other precautions will be necessary to ensure crew safety.
Orbital waste
Space debris includes both natural meteoroid debris and man-made debris. Meteoroids are in orbit around the sun and reach Earth at random (most of them burn in the atmosphere as meteors – falling stars), while most of the artificial debris is regularly in orbit around the Earth (hence the term “orbital” debris).
Orbital debris is any man-made object in orbit around the Earth that no longer plays a useful role. Such debris includes dysfunctional spacecraft, abandoned launch phases, and debris created as a result of collisions between large pieces of debris that has created many small pieces.
There are about 23,000 pieces of debris that are larger than a tennis ball orbiting the earth. They travel at speeds of up to 17,500 km / h, fast enough for a relatively small piece of orbital debris to hit a satellite or spacecraft. There are half a million pieces of debris the size of a marble or more (up to 1 centimeter) or more, and about 100 million pieces of debris Millimeters and up.There are many smaller pieces of debris smaller in micrometer size.
Even tiny paint stains can damage the spacecraft while traveling at these speeds. A number of space shuttle windows have been replaced due to damage caused by material analyzed and proven to be paint stains. In fact, millimeter-sized orbital debris is the highest risk factor for completing the mission for most robotic spacecraft operating in low orbit around the Earth.
In 1996, a French satellite was hit and damaged by debris from a French rocket that had exploded a decade earlier.
On February 10, 2009, a downed Russian spacecraft collided and destroyed an active American commercial spacecraft from the Iridium series. The collision added more than 2,300 traceable large pieces of smaller debris that join the space debris inventory.
China’s 2007 satellite experiment, which used a missile to destroy an old weather satellite, added more than 3,500 pieces of traceable large debris and countless other small fragments.
Space debris monitoring
The Department of Defense maintains a highly accurate satellite catalog of objects in Earth’s orbit. Most cataloged objects are larger than 10 inches.
NASA and the US Department of Defense are cooperating and share responsibility for characterizing the satellite environment (including orbital debris). Km in which communication satellites travel in synchronization with the ground). Currently, about 27,000 objects are still cataloged that are still in orbit, most of them 10 cm or more in diameter. Using special ground sensors and tests of satellites returned from space, NASA has statistically determined the population size for objects less than 10 cm in diameter.
While crash shields provide protection against small particle damage from one inch, larger particles require deployment and possibly even a change in the orbit of the space station, as happened this week.
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