The ISS astronauts had to take cover. A huge Russian satellite fell apart into 100 pieces for unknown reasons

Nine astronauts aboard the International Space Station were forced to take refuge in their ships this morning after being warned of a possible collision with a Russian satellite that had just broken up in low Earth orbit.

Emergency situation on board the ISS. It was about 2:00 UTC when Expedition 71 of the International Space Station received instructions from NASA to take shelter in their returning ships as a precaution against possible collisions with satellite fragments.

Nine astronauts immediately boarded the spacecraft docked at the station: four of them on the SpaceX Crew Dragon, three on the Russian Soyuz, and two on the newly launched Boeing Starliner.

Additional test for Starliner. The Starliner spacecraft is on the space station as part of the certification process. It was supposed to return to Earth a few days ago with two crew members, but problems on board delayed their return so they could analyze as much data as possible for future flights.

But the two astronauts would have been able to return to Earth immediately if the collision warning had not been turned off. One of the tests they had conducted during their first days aboard the space station was to lock themselves in the craft, simulating an emergency. Now they did it again, but in a real situation.

The Russian satellite produced more than 100 fragments. The situation was caused by the Russian satellite Resurs-P1. Launched in 2013, it has not been used since 2021, but it ran out of fuel to get into orbit many years ago, in 2017.

It was expected to re-enter the atmosphere later this year after slowly falling under Earth’s gravity, but instead broke up for unknown reasons. The US Space Command has confirmed the presence of more than 100 trackable fragments.

Anti-satellite test? Resurs-P1 was a huge satellite weighing 5,600 kg, so Russia would have to be really crazy to destroy it with an anti-satellite weapon, as it did with another satellite in 2021. There are other options, such as another piece of space debris colliding with it in orbit, or a “natural” breakup caused by the collapse of its empty tanks.

Be that as it may, this is not the first time that the crew of the International Space Station has had to take cover due to a possible impact from fragments of space debris. There are more than 7,500 active satellites in Earth’s orbit and they share space with 45,300 tracked objects.

Image | NASA, Roscosmos

In Hatak | SpaceX is building a ship to destroy the International Space Station. At the request of NASA