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Space collision poses low risk to ISS

(Xinhua)
Updated: 2009-02-12 15:36

WASHINGTON -- US space agency NASA believes that the risk to the International Space Station (ISS) caused by a collision of two satellites is low, news agencies reported on Wednesday.

Related readings:  2 big satellites collide 500 miles over Siberia

One privately owned US communications satellite collided with a defunct Russian satellite in space Tuesday, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds and posing possible risks to the international space station.

The conclusion of low risk was drawn on the fact that the space station  flies at a lower altitude than the satellite. The space station flies at a lower orbit than the collision course.

The collision occurred at roughly 800 kilometers, an altitude used by satellites that monitor weather and carry telephone communications among other things.

A Chinese space expert said on Thursday that the massive debris of the satellite collision may pose grave danger to other functioning spacecrafts in case they hit them.

"The debris of the two big satellites may create holes on other spacecrafts, or even bigger losses, once they hit them," Pang Zhihao, a Chinese expert on space techniques, told Xinhua.

"The degree of the possible danger's graveness depends on the number, size and flying direction of the debris," he said.

He predicted that a debris's flying speed may reach 7.8 kilometers one second, or even faster, and may remain in space for decades.

The Iridium craft weighed 1,235 pounds (560 kilograms), and the Russian craft nearly a ton.