Friday, February 10, 2023

A Mysterious Russian Satellite Broke Apart Early Last Month Generating A Cloud Of Debris

Space.com: Mysterious Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, generating cloud of debris 

Kosmos 2499 broke apart in early January, according to the U.S. Space Force. 

A mysterious Russian satellite broke apart early last month, creating a cloud of debris that could linger in Earth orbit for a while. 

The Kosmos 2499 spacecraft disintegrated on the night of Jan. 3, according to the U.S. Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron (18th SDS), which tracks human-made objects in orbit. 

The breakup event generated at least 85 pieces of trackable debris, 18th SDS said via Twitter on Monday (opens in new tab) (Feb. 6). 

That cloud of space junk is orbiting 726 miles (1,169 kilometers) above Earth — so high that it'll likely take a century or more (opens in new tab) for atmosphere drag to bring it down.  

Read more ....  

WNU Editor: At an altitude of 1169 km that debris is going to stay in earth orbit for a very long time.

 A Mysterious Russian Satellite Broke Apart Early Last Month Generating A Cloud Of Debris  

Russian satellite breaks up in orbit, debris may last 100+ years -- Business Insider  

Debris from shattered Russian satellite could stay in orbit for decades -- National Post  

Space Force Tracks Debris After Secretive Russian Satellite Breaks Up in Orbit -- CNET  

Mysterious Russian Satellite Explodes -- Futurism

2 comments:

Mr. Nobody said...

Why? Why did it break up? And what was its function?

Did its components fail or maybe something like a meteor hit it. or maybe it was intentionally destroyed. Since NORD stream, we can never be sure

Anonymous said...

those of us who do not know ask
those of us who do know smile