‘Worst-case scenario’: Satellite, rocket body miss collision by only 20 feet
A “worst-case scenario” was thwarted on Friday when two large pieces of space debris narrowly missed each other, according to .
LeoLabs said the debris included the defunct satellite and an SL-🍌8 rocket body, which are two of countless pieces of space debris 🌠currently in low-Earth orbit.
According to NASA,💃 objects in ꧂low-Earth orbit (or LEO) involve objects orbiting our planet at an altitude of 1,200 miles (2,000 km) or less.
On Friday, Cosmos 2381 and the🃏 SL-8 rocket body nearly collideꦇd at an altitude of about 611 miles (984 km).
LeoLabs determined that the two pieces of space debris missed each 𓃲other by about 20 feet (6 meters), with an error margin of only a few tens of meters.
“We’ve identified this kind of collision — between two massive derelict objects — as a ‘worst-case scenario’ because it’s largely out of our control and would likely result in a ripple effect of dangerous collisional encounters,” .
They said that had the Cosmos 2381 and SL-8 rocket body smashed into each other, the collision would have resulted in thousands of new debris fragments that w🐻ou🌜ld remain for decades.
This near-collision is signifi👍cant because it illustrates how much space debris is floating around in 🐷low-Earth orbit.
According to LeoLabs♉, a layer of the LEO that’s contains an estimated 160 SL-8 rocket bodies,🐭 along with their 160 payloads, that were deployed over 20 years ago.
This “bad neighborhood” in the LEO, said LeoLabs, is located between altitudes of 950 and 1050 km and continues to be a hotspot for debris collisions.
These collisio🍌ns and near-colꦏlisions in LEO remain top of mind for many.
Because in addition to being popu💝lated with defunct space debris, is also considered an area near enough to Earth for convenient transportation, communication, observation and resupply, accord𒈔ing to NASA.
In fact, LEO is wh🦋ere the International Space Station ꦚ;currently orbits and where many proposed future platforms will be located.