Russian satellite crashes in space, forcing International Space Station astronauts to take shelter

No additional details have been reported about the possible cause of the disintegration of the Russian satellite Resurs-P1. decommissioned in 2022while the US Space Command, responsible for tracking the debris, assured that there was no immediate threat to other satellites.

Additionally, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, which operates the satellite, did not immediately respond to Space Command’s request for comment. The event occurred around 6:00 pm on the Iberian Peninsula and occurred in orbit close to the space station, stranding the American astronauts on board. hide in your spaceship for about an hourwhich was confirmed by the NASA space station.

According to LeoLabs, a US space tracking company, the satellite released several fragments in about eight hoursSpace Command said the device immediately created “more than 100 trackable pieces of debris.”

Russia has unleashed a powerful criticism from the US and other countries The West in 2021, when it hit one of its now-defunct orbital satellites with an ASAT missile launched from its Plesetsk missile base. The explosion, which served to test the weapons system ahead of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, created thousands of orbital debris.

About 88 minutes after the initial disintegration of RESURS-P1, the Plesetsk test site was one of many places on Earth it flew over, but there were no immediate airspace or maritime alerts that Russia launched a missile to attack the satellite, Harvard space observer and astronomer Jonathan McDowell said.

“I find it hard to believe that they would use such a large satellite as an anti-satellite target,” McDowell said. “But, with today’s Russians, who knows” He and other analysts suggested the breakup could have been caused by problem with satellitefor example, the presence of fuel on board causing an explosion.

For their part, the six American astronauts currently on the space station have been warned by NASA’s mission control to follow “safe haven” procedures, with each crew member rushing to help. enter the spaceship they arrived onin case an emergency exit is needed.