Russian satellite broke into more than 100 pieces in orbit. If you have seen Hollywood films based on space, then you can imagine what the scene would have been when debris would have spread in space. Yes, it is a very dangerous situation and things that come in its grip can also be destroyed. The matter of tension was that the International Space Station was close to the place where this explosion took place. In such a situation, the astronauts present there had to run to the safe house to save their lives. This safe house was actually their spacecraft, in which they stayed for about an hour.
which Russian satellite exploded?
The name of that Russian Earth observation satellite was RESURS-P1. It was declared dead in 2022 itself. On Wednesday, it broke into pieces in space. At that time, the speed of the debris is so high that there is a danger of damage to any satellite or station nearby. In such a situation, the astronauts of ISS took precautionary measures and saved their lives by hiding in their safe house spacecraft. US Space Command has said that there is no danger to other satellites at present.
The reason for the satellite blast is not clear yet. Russia’s space agency Roscosmos has also not commented on this incident. US space tracking firm LeoLabs detected that pieces of the satellite were spreading. After this, US Space Command confirmed that more than 100 pieces had broken and scattered in space.
Debris in space
The occurrence of large debris in orbit is not common, but it is now becoming a cause of concern. Yes, the reason for this is that the number of satellites has increased rapidly. In 2021, Western countries strongly criticized Russia when it blew up one of its satellites with an anti-satellite missile from the ground itself. This spread thousands of pieces of debris in orbit. However, in this case, the RESURS-P1 satellite is unlikely to be destroyed by a missile.
In fact, when satellites complete their life, they remain calm in orbit until they come towards the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up. The second option is to go to the ‘graveyard’ of the orbit which is 36,000 km away from the Earth. This reduces the risk of collision with active satellites.
Russia declared this satellite dead in 2021 because many of its equipment had failed.