The Hindu : National : Debris from China’s satellite pose risk

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Friday, Sep 28, 2007
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Debris from China’s satellite pose risk

Special Correspondent

HYDERABAD: A majority of the 300 communication, remote sensing and scientific spacecraft operating at an altitude of between 700 and 800 km face a substantial risk of being destroyed by the debris created by the break-up of China’s Fengyun 1-C spacecraft.

China destroyed the ageing satellite by firing a missile at it on January 11 this year. In terms of catalogued debris, this event constituted the worst single fragmentation in the history of the space age and its effects would be very long-lived, Nicholas L. Johnson of NASA said here.

Talking to The Hindu on the sidelines of the International Astronautical Congress here, he said that following this anti-satellite test (ASAT), the debris, which were of the size of 10 cm or more, had increased by 33 per cent in the Low Earth Orbit debris environment. The U.S. Space Surveillance Network (SSN) had, till recently, identified around 2,500 pieces of debris of the size of more than 10 cm which reside in long-lived orbits. About 15 to 20 pieces were a few sqm-long.

Mr. Johnson feared that the increase in the amount of debris enhanced the probability of collision, thereby destroying operational spacecraft. In the wake of the test in which the Chinese spacecraft was intercepted by a ballistic kinetic kill vehicle, NASA executed collision avoidance manoeuvres for its Terra spacecraft and also another satellite. It also planned a similar manoeuvre for the ISS but later cancelled it when the miss distance was determined to be acceptable.

Earlier making a presentation on “the characteristics and consequences of the break-up of the Fengyun 1-C spacecraft” at the Congress, he told the delegates that due to the large number of tracked Fengyun 1-C debris, close approaches between the debris and operational spacecraft were common.

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