Russian satellite breaks up, astronauts take temporary shelter

NASA announced that the incident occurred around 1:00 a.m. GMT on June 27 (8:00 a.m. Hanoi time). The European Space Agency (ESA) said that the ISS operates in the same time zone as GMT. Therefore, the astronauts may have been sleeping when the incident occurred.

Two NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams move into Boeing’s Starliner spacecraft, the vehicle that took them to the ISS a few weeks ago. Three other American astronauts and one Russian astronaut took refuge in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon spacecraft, which brought them there in March. The remaining three astronauts, who have been working on the ISS since September last year, Move into the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

NASA said the procedure was a precautionary measure and that the crews were only in their spacecraft for about an hour before exiting and the station resumed normal operations. NASA did not identify the satellite. However, satellite monitoring and collision detection company LeoLabs identified a debris event at the time. “Initial indications are that a non-functional Russian satellite, Resurs-P1 or SATNO 39186, released multiple pieces of debris,” the company wrote on social media X.

The US Space Command also announced Resurs-P1 on X, saying the event created more than 100 pieces of trackable debris. The agency observed no immediate threat and is continuing to assess the possibility of a conjunction — the possibility of two objects in orbit coming close together.

Resurs-P1 was launched on June 25, 2013, and has been operating until December 2021 – well beyond its original planned lifespan. The Earth observation satellite is used for a variety of purposes, from defense to emergency monitoring to agriculture.

The amount of space junk in orbit is becoming an increasingly concerning issue. The North American Air Defense Command (NORAD) is tracking more than 45,300 space objects, not counting untraceable debris. The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) also lists 7,560 active satellites around the Earth, not counting those that have stopped working and cannot be controlled.

NASA works with the US military to monitor the space around the ISS. The space station is often forced to move (if there is time) when any debris larger than 5 cm (2 inches) enters the “pizza box” shaped area around the ISS orbit. The box is about 4 x 50 x 50 km (2.5 x 31 x 31 miles) with the ISS at its center. According to NASA procedures, astronauts can take shelter in their spacecraft if the threat makes it possible to evacuate the ISS.