By: Yutong Cai

On a Wednesday afternoon, near the ISS (International Space Station), an old Russian satellite broke into more than 100 pieces in orbit. According to Nasa’s Space Station office, the astronauts on the ISS were forced to take shelter for more than around an hour.

The astronauts were able to leave the spacecraft and continue with their usual work after the event.

No immediate details were given about what caused the satellite to come apart. Russia had declared dead in 2022, to break. By Thursday afternoon, more than 180 broken pieces were found. The satellite broke at a height of 220 miles above Earth, a height where thousands of small and large satellites operated, including China’s Tiangong space station.

Things like this in orbit don’t usually happen. Concerns increase as space becomes crowded with satellite networks and spacecraft, which people rely on and use everyday. Satellites play a huge role in making Earth’s activities such as internet use and navigation possible.

Many are also concerned that there is space junk everywhere, which are the many satellites not being used in space, among other things.

Dead satellites stay in orbit most of the time until they descend into Earth’s atmosphere years later and then burn up on the way. In much rarer circumstances, they float into deep space, far away from Earth.

US space-tracking company LeoLabs says about the Russian satellite, “Due to the low orbit of this debris cloud, we estimate it’ll be weeks to months before the hazard has passed.”

There are about 25,000 pieces of debris larger than four inches in space from satellite explosions or collisions. This could cause more problems in the future.

Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/newsround/articles/cz9x6znwzdwo