A dead Russian spacecraft almost collided with a NASA satellite. The crash could have sent 7,500 bits of debris rocketing around Earth.

Fri, 03/01/2024 - 14:50

Simulated image of a satellite collision in space — A simulated image of a satellite collision and the resulting debris.
ESA / ID&Sense / ONiRiXEL, CC BY-SA 3.0 IGO

NASA's TIMED satellite narrowly avoided colliding with Russia's dead Cosmos 2221 spacecraft this week.
In the worst-case scenario, the collision would have ejected 7,500 bits of debris into low-Earth orbit.
Satellite collisions are becoming more likely as the amount of space junk in low-Earth orbit grows.

Two satellites nearly collided in space on Wednesday in a harrowing encounter that LeoLabs, a satellite tracking company, called "too close for comfort."