The International Space Station on March 7, 2011 in a photo provided by NASA (NASA / -)
The US military said Monday it is investigating a “debris-causing event” in space that forced astronauts currently on the International Space Station to temporarily take refuge in their ships so they can evacuate quickly if necessary.
A US Space Command spokesperson said: “US Space Command is aware of an event that caused debris to be present in space. We are actively working to characterize the debris field.”
Some American space specialists suspect that the test of an anti-satellite missile conducted by Russia is the source of this debris, the information is not confirmed at the moment.
Such action, which would constitute a show of force by Moscow, has been carried out by only four countries in the past, including Russia. It is widely criticized, especially for the large amount of debris generated, which then turns into dangerous projectiles.
And the Russian space agency Roscosmos had announced earlier that the astronauts aboard the International Space Station were out of danger, without mentioning the possibility of a missile test.
“The orbit of the object, which today forced the crew to travel to the spacecraft using standard procedures, moved away from the orbit of the International Space Station,” the Russian space agency Roscosmos wrote on Twitter. “The station is now green.”
“Friends, everything is fine with us. We continue to work according to our program,” tweeted Russian cosmonaut Anton Shkaplerov.
We were contacted, and NASA did not immediately respond to AFP’s requests.
– Rare event –
There are currently seven people on the International Space Station. According to specialized media Spaceflight Now, NASA astronauts Raja Chari, Kayla Barron and Tom Marshburn, as well as European Space Agency (ESA) astronaut Matthias Maurer, had to take refuge in the SpaceX Dragon capsule, from which they arrived only a few days later. Ago.
American astronaut Mark Vandy and Russian cosmonauts Anton Shkaplerov and Pyotr Dobrov went to the Soyuz spacecraft. This action should enable them to leave the space station toward Earth in the event of an emergency.
The same source had all returned to the International Space Station midday Monday.
“Debris events from anti-satellite tests don’t happen very often, the most recent of which was an Indian test” in March 2019, astronomer Jonathan McDowell said in an interview with AFP.
According to him, by deducing the trajectories of the International Space Station and nearby objects, the target satellite could be a satellite named Cosmos 1408, which has not been active since the 1980s.
“Destroying it was absolutely not necessary,” the specialist judged. “We already have a lot of debris out there to deliberately generate more, which is unforgivable.”
According to him, some of the debris from this test will disintegrate upon entering the atmosphere “in the coming months”, but others may remain in orbit for years.
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