main page newsspace newsfragment of space garbage damaged the astronauts sleep

Fragment of space garbage damaged the astronauts sleep. / November 10, 2009 /

In the night of 6 to 7 November 2009 on the ISS was launched anxiety in connection with a possible collision with space debris station. Later, however, revealed that a false alarm. This was reported in blog astronaut Maxima Suraeva site Roskosmos.

According to an astronaut, an alarm has been declared due to the fact that the so-called «red zone» around the station (ie, less than mile from the orbital station) is expected to pass the fragment size of about 5 centimeters. Because of the high speed, even small pieces of debris may pose a serious danger for the ISS. The object was spotted too late for avoidance maneuvers.

In NASA included an option for moving the command station in the Soyuz, which are for the ISS rescue capsules. However, later it was decided to allow the astronauts to sleep at their usual places. As a precaution it was assumed that the crew would regularly wake up to get the latest information from specialists from Houston.

The alarm was canceled at three o’clock local (Stationmaster) time, since repeated observations and calculations showed that the debris will pass.

According Suraeva, not all astronauts were frightened by the prospect of a possible evacuation of the station. «We have our MCC also issued recommendations — things to pack, clean air ducts — a sudden depressurization of the station there … Romka (Suraeva colleague, Russia’s cosmonaut Roman Romanenko) shouting:» Hurray! «I ran to collect things!» Hurry home, get there! "And such a joyful, galloped away — bored at home … "- wrote in his blog Suraev. Roman Romanenko spent in orbit for more than five months.

Currently, experts from the United States are monitoring more than 19 thousand objects in orbit, the diameter of which not less than 10 centimeters. It is believed that in the coming years the situation with the debris in orbit will only get worse. Thus, according to research by British astronomers in the next 5 years the probability of collision with debris, satellites in orbit will increase at least twice.

Print version