|

Debris From Collision Should Stabilize Soon

Feb 12, 2009
Jefferson Morris jeff_morris@AviationWeek.com




The field of debris from the recent collision of a defunct Russian government satellite with an Iridium spacecraft should stabilize within about a month, at which point its behavior should be fairly predictable, according to U.S. Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

"My worry is that that debris field is going to be up there for a lot of years, so we're going to have to play a little bit of dodgeball," Cartwright said during a Feb. 12 event at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington sponsored by the Space Enterprise Council and the George C. Marshall Institute.

The Iridium low-Earth orbiting satellite and the 16-year-old Cosmos 2251 communications satellite collided shortly before noon eastern time on Feb. 10, creating a debris field that could rival the one created by China's 2007 test of an anti-satellite weapon (Aerospace DAILY, Feb. 12).

"The good news is, once it stabilizes, it's relatively predictable," Cartwright said. "The bad news is, it's a relatively large area. And if we're denied that area for use, it becomes a problem."

The collision underscores the need for better space situational awareness, according to Cartwright, the former head of U.S. Strategic Command.

Richard Dalbello, vice president of government relations for Intelsat and former head of the Satellite Industry Association, said the space industry is still "a long way off" from having any kind of traffic management/deconfliction system that would prevent such accidents.

The Air Force does make their space tracking catalog available online, and fields specific data requests from satellite operators, but this is a time-consuming process, he said. For the most part, the burden is still on the operators to predict when a potential "conjunction" -- i.e., collision -- could occur, he said.

James Lewis, a senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said he is "interested to know, does Iridium have a case against the Russians?" Clearly, he said, there was some negligence involved on someone's part. "I don't think we want this one to go away quietly, like 'Oops, this was just a natural event.'"

While he wouldn't comment on Russia's culpability, Cartwright said he hopes the accident will help spark more dialogue with Russia and China about sharing orbital tracking information.

"We would be remiss not to take advantage of this and try to turn it to good as we go forward," he said.

Photo: ESA




◄ Share this news!

Bookmark and Share

Advertisement







The Manhattan Reporter

Recently Added

Recently Commented