A defunct russian satellite has collided with a US iridium communications satellite turning them both into a cloud of debris (~600 trackable bits & counting!).

In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite ran into each other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage, officials said today. The international space station does not appear to be threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other military or civilian satellites.

Link to story

this is what happens when ya let chicks lose thier toolbags in space ;)

Asked which satellite was at fault, Johnson said "they ran into each other. Nothing has the right of way up there. We don't have an air traffic controller in space. There is no universal way of knowing what's coming in your direction."

Hahaha. I wonder if you can get insurance on satellites.

America will launch their Law suite next week.

American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!

I think it was another terrorist attacks like 9/11. Probably hijacked the Russian one with boxcutters. American should invade Russia.... or space....

Maybe it was simply a matter of poor driving. Bet you the Russian one didn't indicate properly.... probably speeding too. "In space, nobody can see your indicator."

sif it wasn't SG1 laying the smack down

There is so much junk floating up around there that this was only a matter of time. Just before they de-com a Sat shouldn't they crash it into an Ocean, or set it off on a journey into the Sun or something?

Just giving up on it and letting it float around aimlessly for 10 years seems a little stupid.

they should just send them off with directions for getting back
we need some cool alien s*** already.. as long as they don't try to destroy us before we destroy ourselves that is

either that or sink them in the oceans for the next wave of humans to find after the next ice age

They should all fight until there is only 1 super satelite that has absorbed the power of all it has killed.

Topic: U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide

That's pretty cool. One of the recent episodes of The Universe talked about the effects of what happened when China collided 2 satellites. Apparently it was disastrous in terms of the amount of debris it left floating around earth.

American components, Russian Components, ALL MADE IN TAIWAN!

Damn, beaten. :(

is russian is broken

Really though, im not suprised. The ak47 is probably the only reliable thing ever made by russians.

CHARTER BOAT??? WHAT CHARTER BOAT??

i had shares in a company that had the technology to track orbiting space debris to about 5cm

they would have seen this coming months ago.. wonder why they didnt do anything unless it was an insurance scam

I love the details of it though, the fact that they collided at 4km/s. I mean that's 14,336 over in a 60 zone, imagine the loss of license.

those pictures of all the objects in orbit are pretty cool

http://2wanderlust.files.wordpress.com/2008/07/sat2.jpg

http://blogs.nature.com/news/thegreatbeyond/trackable ESA.jpg

last edited by d[o_0]b at 08:45:19 14/Feb/09