U.S. and Russian Satellites Crash in Space

Both satellites were destroyed, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told journalists on Wednesday. Humphries said it will take weeks to determine the full extent of the situation.

The Russian satellite Kosmos 2251 crashed into the U.S. satellite Iridium 33 on Tuesday, February 10, approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) above far northern Siberia.

The resulting clouds of debris contain more than 500 fragments, significantly increasing the orbital debris at the altitude where the collision occurred.

Iridium 33 was an operational U.S. communications satellite that is part of the Iridium global mobile communications system owned by a consortium headed by the U.S. company Motorola. It was launched into low Earth orbit from the Baikonur Cosmodrome on September 14, 1997.

Image shows the orbits of the two satellites and the point of impact over Siberia. (Image courtesy NASA)

Kosmos-2251, a retired Strela Russian military communications satellite, was also circling in low Earth orbit. It was launched from the Plesetsk Cosmodrome on June 16, 1993.

NASA has concluded that the debris clouds are posing no major threat to the International Space Station, as the station is circulating on a lower orbit, Humphries said.

Still, Humphries said NASA experts are continuing to analyse any possible risks to the space station from the collision.

There also should be no danger to an upcoming space shuttle flight, targeted for lift-off no earlier than February 22, "but they're continuing to analyze any possible risk," Humphries said.

The U.S. Air Force Space Surveillance Radar is monitoring the clouds of debris as they pass over the radar facility in Texas.

"We knew this was going to happen eventually," said Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

Dr. Tony Phillips of the Spaceweather website said, "Rumors are circulating that the debris is radioactive. Not true. These satellites were not nuclear powered."

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