Posted on 02/08/2023 4:59:47 PM PST by dennisw
A mysterious Russian satellite with a shady mission has broken apart in Earth's orbit, creating a hazardous cloud of debris zipping around the planet and menacing other satellites, US Space Force announced.
The 18th Space Defense Squadron said on Twitter Monday that it had confirmed a satellite called Kosmos 2499 had broken apart into 85 pieces.
Previous collisions and satellite break-ups have created far larger and more hazardous debris fields than this.
But the pieces of Kosmos 2499 are orbiting at an altitude of about 745 miles — so high that they'll probably be there for a century or longer before Earth's atmosphere drags them down and burns them up, according to NASA.
Kosmos 2499 is one of three satellites that Russia launched secretly from 2013 to 2015. Its beginning is even more mysterious than its end.
NASA and the US Department of Defense did not immediately respond to Insider's requests for comment.
The satellite was launched secretly and made 'suspicious' maneuvers in orbit
On Christmas Day 2013, Russia launched a small Rokot rocket into the skies above Plesetsk, carrying three military communications satellites into orbit.
(Excerpt) Read more at msn.com ...
There’s already a ton of Chinese space debris they left on purpose
All I see is more dumb outer space junk, orbiting to crash into legitimate satellites.
“before Earth’s atmosphere drags them down and burns them up.”
Gravity is what pulls it down. The atmosphere is what burns it up.
L
The atmosphere provides drag which slows the debris.
Well at least it will burn up.
Somewhere it was said if space debris is not cleaned up we will be trapped on this planet until the sun becomes a red giant and cooks us alive.
Someone figured out how to clean up trash in the ocean.
We need the same thing for space.
Yes. Even many miles up there are molecules, very thinly spread out, that provide a tiny amount of drag. It’s not what we normally think of as the atmosphere, but there it is.
I’ve long suggested that a satellite that would generate “a big ball of goo”, like polymer chewing gum, and ram and be rammed into by space debris until ‘full’, then guided back into the atmosphere, is the way to go.
Relatively cheap and cheerful.
Maybe this is a good thing. It will probably slow down climate change. Or reverse it.
Heck, that Russian satellite might be the very thing that was causing climate change.
And before you start calling me an idiot let me just point out that all comments about addressing climate change are more or less equally idiotic once you consider the Sun and it’s heat output.
We need “Operation Vacu-Suck”!
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