Russian satellite breaks up in space, forcing ISS astronauts to shelter in capsules

Washington: A defunct Russian satellite has broken up into more than 100 pieces of debris in orbit, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter for about an hour and adding to the mass of space junk already in orbit, US space agencies said.

There were no immediate details on what caused the break-up of the RESURS-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite, which was declared dead in 2022.

The International Space Station.Credit: SpaceX

US Space Command, tracking the debris swarm, said there was no immediate threat to other satellites.

The event took place at around 10am Denver-time on Wednesday, Space Command said.

Russia’s space agency Roscosmos, which operated the satellite, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Astronauts Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams are staying longer than expected on the International Space Station.Credit: AP

Radars from US space-tracking firm LeoLabs detected the satellite releasing several fragments up until 6pm Mountain Time, the company said.

US Space Command, which has its own global network of space-tracking radars, said the satellite immediately created “over 100 pieces of trackable debris”.

Large debris-generating events in orbit are rare but of increasing concern as space becomes crowded with satellite networks vital to everyday life on Earth.

Russia sparked strong criticism from the US and other Western countries in 2021 when it struck one of its defunct satellites in orbit with a ground-based anti-satellite (ASAT) missile launched from its Plesetsk rocket site.

The blast, testing a weapon system ahead of Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine, created thousands of pieces of orbital debris.

In the roughly 88-minute window of RESURS-P1’s initial break-up, the Plesetsk site was one of many locations on Earth it passed over, but there was no immediate indication from airspace or maritime alerts that Russia had launched a missile to strike the satellite, space-tracker and Harvard astronomer Jonathan McDowell said.

“I find it hard to believe they would use such a big satellite as an ASAT target,” McDowell said. “But, with the Russians these days, who knows.”

He and other analysts speculated the break-up could have been caused by a problem with the satellite, such as leftover fuel onboard causing an explosion.

The six US astronauts currently on the space station were alerted by NASA mission control in Houston around 9pm ET on Wednesday to execute “safe haven” procedures, where each crew member rushes into the spacecraft they arrived in, in case an emergency departure is required.

NASA astronauts Butch Wilmore and Sunni Williams boarded their Starliner spacecraft, the Boeing-built capsule that has been docked since June 6 in its first crewed test mission on the station.

Three of the other US astronauts and a Russian cosmonaut went into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon capsule that flew them to the station in March, while the sixth US astronaut joined the two remaining cosmonauts in their Russian Soyuz capsule that ferried them there in September last year.

The astronauts emerged from their spacecraft roughly an hour later and resumed their normal work on the station, NASA said.

Reuters