‘Worst-case scenario’ space junk disaster avoided in a near miss: Report

A space junk disaster in the low-Earth orbit was avoided as a defunct satellite, and a rocket body had a near collision about 984 kilometres above the surface of the planet.

A NASA illustration of orbital debris around the planet. (Image credit: NASA)

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The Low-Earth orbit or LEO has become increasingly more populated in recent years with the proliferation of “constellations” of satellites from companies like SpaceX and OneWeb. However, this orbit around the Earth is brimming with space debris. A near miss between a rocket body and dead satellite on January 27 illustrated how close we are to a space disaster.

Space technology company LeoLabs illustrated how two defunct objects in space—an SL-8 rocket body (16511) and Cosmos 2361 (25590) —passed extremely close to each other at an altitude of 984 kilometres above our planet’s surface. Based on the company’s radar tracking data, it concluded that the two objects missed each other by a margin of just six metres.

According to LeoLabs, if the two objects had collided, it would have resulted in a “worst-case scenario” where an out-of-control collision would cause a ripple effect that would lead to more collisions, eventually resulting in thousands of pieces of space debris that could persists for decades and make space exploration more difficult.

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“It’s imperative that we not only focus on collision avoidance but also debris mitigation and debris remediation to combat #SpaceDebris. This requires investing in debris removal technologies and missions,” wrote LeoLabs in a Twitter thread.

Too close for comfort… 😳

Two large, defunct objects in #LEO narrowly missed each other this morning — an SL-8 rocket body (16511) and Cosmos 2361 (25590) passed by one another at an altitude of 984km. 🚀⚠️ #SpaceDebris pic.twitter.com/pF9o6BuZ5Q

— LeoLabs (@LeoLabs_Space) January 27, 2023

While defunct satellites and other space junk cannot move out of each others’ way to avoid collisions, functioning satellites and the International Space Station can conduct manoeuvres to avoid them. In October last year, ISS had to fire its thrusters for 5 minutes to dodge debris from a Russian Cosmos 1408 satellite that the country blew up as part of an anti-satellite attack test in 2021.