No Collision. This Time

NASA has determined that the piece of space debris it feared might strike the ISS will in fact comfortably miss the space station. The object has been identified as a piece of an old Soviet military navigation satellite, Cosmos 1275. The Cosmos series seems to have had a variety of uses, and some carried radio active elements as a power source, but the piece in question seems to be garden variety stuff. Still, a five inch piece of metal traveling at an orbital velocity of something near 18,000 mph would be a devastating projectile if it hit a spacecraft.

Space debris in Earth orbit, as noted earlier in this blog, is increasingly being seen as a problem. Some have proposed a new policy mandating that a group that puts a satellite into orbit must also safely de-orbit the satellite once its useful life was complete. Holding nations to that standard would likely require a new treaty, which means that forward-looking solution is probably years away. Even then, there would still be all the junk currently in orbit.