South West England from the 25th July 2014. Landsat 8 imagery courtesy of NASA Goddard Space Flight Center and U.S. Geological Survey
We’re looking at the challenges of working in space this week, with another rocket failure and a near miss; but also attracting the next generation to the industry.
Near Miss In Space!
There was a near miss in the atmosphere earlier this month according to LeoLabs, a company that tracks objects in orbit, who reported two pieces of space debris came close to colliding.
LeoLabs believe the objects were a Russian Cosmos 807 payload launched in 1976, and a Chinese Long March 4C rocket body launched in 2018. Reportedly, they came within 36 metres of each other, with a ± 13 metre error, while travelling at almost 17,000 miles per hour at just under 700 kilometres altitude.
Given their speeds and masses, LeoLabs forecast that if a collision had occurred it would have created around 3,000 pieces of debris. For comparison, when India destroyed a satellite in a missile test in 2019 this created 400 pieces of debris, while when Russia conducted a successful test anti-satellite test of its missile system in 2021 this created around 1,800 pieces of debris. This indicates that had the two objects collided it would have created significant debris, and who knows what further damage these particles might have done.
There are currently estimated to be as many 130 million pieces of debris in space, and any increase is unhelpful, as it potentially poses a threat to our use of low Earth space. In 1978, Donald Kessler outlined his Kessler Syndrome hypothesis, which proposed a scenario where the debris from a single collision between two objects would set off a huge cascade of collisions creating so much debris that it would prevent any further spacecraft from passing through the low Earth orbit area. Nothing happened on this occasion, but the danger is obvious and it is why effort is being put into missions to remove space debris.
Chinese Satellite Loss
Last week we discussed the launch failure of a Rocket Labs Electron rocket resulting in the loss of an Earth Observation satellite. The story has repeated, but this time the launch failure occurred for the Chinese commercial company Galactic Energy and its Ceres-1 launch vehicle. Reports indicated that during the launch on the 21st September abnormal performance was detected – but no further official information is given, other than an investigation is under way – unofficial reports indicate it appears to be a problem with the second or third stage engine.
This mission, which followed nine successful launches, was carrying a Jilin-1 Gaofen-04B high resolution EO satellite, for the Chang Guang Satellite Technology company. The satellite was lost as it failed to get into orbit.
Next Generation of Space Talent
At the end of this week, the 28th September to 2nd October, the UK Space Agency’s ‘Space for Everyone’ tour visits the home city of Pixalytics, Plymouth in the UK.
It’s an outreach event showcasing the range of space-related career opportunities there are available across all the STEAM areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Mathematics.
The exhibition will feature a 72 ft replica of the Virgin Orbit LauncherOne rocket, a number of space-related activities, virtual reality experiences, and information from local space companies and professionals.
It’s free to attend and will allow anyone who is curious about a space career to find out more by simply turning up, details of opening times can be found here. Pixalytics has offered some promotional materials to the event, and we’ll be attending during the weekend to talk to people and support the event.
Hope to see you there!
