Iridium satelite crash

All

www.forbes.com/2009/02/11/communications...ss_0211_iridium.html

One less iridium flare chance

Steve

Wow - I suppose it was bound to happen sooner or later, but what are the odds? - pretty low I would have thought.

The precise probability question is best left alone (I'm a statistician by profession) or tackled while in a bar. But sure enough if you were the operator of the saterlite it counts as severe bad luck.
I wonder how many military/cold war intended and unintended collisions may have happened ?

Steve

I wonder how many military/cold war intended and unintended collisions may have happened ?

I wonder if the russians have programmed "end-of-life" kamikazee actions into their hardware. Once their satellites go EOL then they look around for something to run into.:S

I wonder is their insurance fully comp. or just third party fire and theft. :silly:

cnn.com's take of events:

edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/02/12/us.russi...ite.crash/index.html

The collision on Tuesday produced two large debris clouds, NASA said. The satellites collided at 10 kilometers (6 miles) per second, producing 500-600 new pieces of space debris, the U.S. Strategic Command said.

That debris is not believed to pose a threat to the International Space Station as long as the clouds continue moving in a lower orbit, according to NASA and the Russian federal space agency, Roscosmos.

Could be more drama to come.

Seanie.