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NASA satellite's 'shocking' space junk near-miss was even closer than
thought
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By Mike Wall published 5 hours ago
"It was very shocking personally, and also for all of us at NASA."

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illustration of a spacecraft orbiting earth
Artist’s impression of NASA's TIMED spacecraft in orbit, scanning Earth.
(Image credit: Johns Hopkins APL/Steve Gribben)
Humanity dodged an orbital bullet recently by an even slimmer margin
than we thought.

In the wee hours of Feb. 28, the dead Russian spy satellite Cosmos 2221
and NASA's TIMED craft, which has been studying Earth's atmosphere since
2001, made an uncomfortably close pass in orbit, zooming within a mere
65 feet (20 meters) of each other.

That was the initial estimate, anyway. Further study has shown that the
shave was actually even closer, according to NASA Deputy Administrator
Pam Melroy.

"We recently learned through analysis that the pass ended up being less
than 10 meters [33 feet] apart — within the hard-body parameters of both
satellites," Melroy said April 9 during a presentation at the 39th Space
Symposium in Colorado Springs.

"It was very shocking personally, and also for all of us at NASA," she
said, adding that the encounter "really scared us all."

Related: 7 wild ideas to clean up space junk

She explained the concern: "Had the two satellites collided, we would
have seen significant debris generation — tiny shards traveling tens of
thousands of miles an hour, waiting to puncture a hole in another
spacecraft, potentially putting human lives at risk."

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This is not merely a theoretical issue. In August 2021, for example, the
Chinese military satellite Yunhai 1-02 got whacked by a piece of space
junk — apparently a bit of debris from the Zenit-2 rocket that launched
Russia's Tselina-2 spy satellite in 1996.

While such hits remain rare, near misses such as the one TIMED survived
are becoming more and more common, for Earth orbit is getting more and
more crowded.

There are currently about 11,500 satellites circling our planet at the
moment, 9,000 of which are operational, according to the European Space
Agency (ESA). More than half of these functional craft, by the way, are
part of SpaceX's Starlink broadband network; the ever-growing
megaconstellation currently consists of nearly 5,800 satellites.

But that's just part of the picture. There are about 36,500 pieces of
space junk at least 4 inches (10 centimeters) wide in Earth orbit, ESA
estimates, and more than 130 million shards at least 1 millimeter across.

As Melroy noted, even such tiny slivers of debris can do damage to
satellites and the International Space Station (ISS), given the
velocities involved. At the ISS' orbit, about 250 miles (400 kilometers)
up, objects move at around 17,500 mph (28,160 kph) — far faster than any
bullet.

RELATED STORIES:
— 6 objects that could cause space debris apocalypse

— The Kessler Syndrome and the space junk problem

— Space collision: Chinese satellite got whacked by hunk of Russian
rocket in March

NASA has worked over the years to help mitigate the space-junk problem,
Melroy added. As an example, she cited the agency's work two decades ago
to help implement "common-sense practices," such as the passivation of
rocket upper stages in orbit — a process that involves, among other
actions, venting their remaining fuel to reduce their explosive potential.

But the agency wants to do more, Melroy said. And that increased push
includes an integrated "space sustainability strategy," the first part
of which NASA released the day of Melroy's talk.

"Developed under the leadership of a crossagency advisory board, the
space sustainability strategy focuses on advancements NASA can make
toward measuring and assessing space sustainability in Earth orbit,
identifying cost-effective ways to meet sustainability targets,
incentivizing the adoption of sustainable practices through technology
and policy development, and increasing efforts to share and receive
information with the rest of the global space community," agency
officials said in an April 9 statement.

NASA's sustainability strategy will eventually encompass four domains:
Earth, Earth orbit, cislunar space (the region near and around the moon)
and deep space. The 35-page first volume focuses on sustainability in
Earth orbit, agency officials said.

You can learn more about the sustainability strategy, and read the first
volume, via NASA here.

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Mike Wall
Mike Wall
Senior Space Writer
Michael Wall is a Senior Space Writer with Space.com and joined the team
in 2010. He primarily covers exoplanets, spaceflight and military space,
but has been known to dabble in the space art beat. His book about the
search for alien life, "Out There," was published on Nov. 13, 2018.
Before becoming a science writer, Michael worked as a herpetologist and
wildlife biologist. He has a Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the
University of Sydney, Australia, a bachelor's degree from the University
of Arizona, and a graduate certificate in science writing from the
University of California, Santa Cruz. To find out what his latest
project is, you can follow Michael on Twitter.