A Russian satellite has broken into pieces, littering debris in space

A Russian KOSMOS 2499 satellite broke up final month—for a second time—based on the House Drive’s 18th House Protection Squadron. In a current tweet, the House Drive stated they’re at the moment monitoring 85 particular person items of particles at an altitude of 1,169 km (726 miles). The breakup occurred on January 4, 2023, however the motive for the disintegration stays unknown.

At this high altitude, it is going to take a long time for the particles to deorbit and deplete within the Earth’s environment. The particles is situated in an more and more busy area in Earth’s orbit.

See more

#18SDS has confirmed the breakup of COSMOS 2499 (#39765, 2014-028E)—occurred Jan 4, 2023 at appx 0357 UTC. Monitoring 85 related items at est 1169 km altitude—evaluation ongoing. #spacedebris #space @SpaceTrackOrg @US_SpaceCom @ussfspoc

— 18th House Protection Squadron (@18thSDS) February 7, 2023

However that is truly the second breakup occasion of Kosmos 2499. The primary fragmentation occurred on October 23, 2021, based on Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer on the Harvard-Smithsonian Middle for Astrophysics who additionally tracks space debris. That occasion created 22 items of trackable particles.

This satellite has had a curious historical past. Russia quietly launched KOSMOS 2499 on Might 23, 2014. However monitoring indicated the satellite carried out uncommon maneuvers, main some to take a position that it might be an experimental anti-satellite weapon, satellite upkeep automobile, or collector of space particles.

Nonetheless, an article printed on the official Moscow Institute of Physics and Expertise web site indicated the satellite was designed to check experimental plasma propulsion engines/ion thrusters.

Each the primary and now second breakup occasion was regarded as attributable to an explosion of that propulsion system. LeoLabs, Inc., a industrial supplier of low Earth orbit mapping and monitoring additionally tweeted concerning the present scenario, saying that their evaluation factors towards a low depth explosion, “as a result of asymmetry of the particles cloud, magnitude of the rate imparted to the fragments, and a identified energetic supply on board” (i.e., the propulsion system).

LeoLabs stated one other equivalent spacecraft, Kosmos 2491, exploded in 2020, and that occasion has been attributed to an explosion of the propulsion system.

This occasion follows a current shut name the place two items of leftover Soviet-era space junk handed inside toes of one another on January 27, 2023. A bit of a rocket stage got here as shut as 19.7 toes (six meters) from a defunct satellite at an altitude of 611 miles (984 km) above Earth’s floor. If the 2 had collided, they’d have created a particles cloud crammed with 1000’s of tiny items of harmful space junk.