MOSCOW, Oct 15: A Russian inactive satellite and an expended stage of a Chinese rocket are likely to collide on Friday at an altitude of 991 km (615 miles) in low-Earth orbit over the Antarctic, the US LeoLabs company, which provides space debris tracking, said on October 14.
“We are monitoring a very high risk conjunction between two large defunct objects,”, the company said on Twitter referring to a Russian satellite Cosmos 2004 launched in 1989 and an upper stage of Chinese Long March rocket Chang Zheng 4C launched in 2009.
According to the company’s data, “combined mass of both objects is about 2,800 kg and the probability of their collision is more than 10 percent.
Scientists have recorded about 250 cases of space object’s destruction since 1961, when the first such incident occurred, Russian rocket and spacecraft scientific center’s expert Yury Koluka said in April, 2019.
(AGENCIES)
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