Science
Wreckage of two satellites in orbit poses serious threat to others
Topic: U.S., Russian satellites collide in space
13:12 13/02/2009
KOROLYOV (Moscow Region), February 13 (RIA Novosti) - The remnants of the U.S. and Russian satellites that collided on Tuesday poses a serious threat to other satellites on the same orbit, a Russian Mission Control official told journalists on Friday.
"800 kilometers is a very popular orbit for remote Earth sensing and telecommunications satellites," said Vladimir Solovyov, head of the Russian segment of the International Space Station.
"There are a lot of communications satellites there, many of them still in operation. There are 66 Iridium series satellites alone on that orbit. The cloud [of debris] from the collision is a serious threat to them," he said
Tuesday's collision of a U.S. Iridium satellite and the defunct Russian Cosmos-2251 approximately 800 kilometers (500 miles) above Siberia was the first time such an incident has occurred.

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