Over 600 space objects have approached the International Space Station (ISS) at a dangerous distance over the past 20 years, Dmitry Grudin, a spokesman for the Russian rocket and spacecraft scientific center TsNIIMash, part of the state space corporation Roscosmos, said on Friday
MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 19th April, 2019) Over 600 space objects have approached the International Space Station (ISS) at a dangerous distance over the past 20 years, Dmitry Grudin, a spokesman for the Russian rocket and spacecraft scientific center TsNIIMash, part of the state space corporation Roscosmos, said on Friday."Throughout the over 20-year history of the ISS operation, more than 600 warnings about security zone breaches have been registered. Moreover, in 24 cases maneuvers were carried out [to avoid a collision]," Grudin said at a conference on space debris.
According to Grudin, 145 warnings were received due to debris of Fengyun-1C meteorological satellite shot down by China in January 2007. Debris of Russia's Kosmos 2421 military satellite, which was destroyed in 2008, also approached the ISS at a dangerous distance, as well as debris of Russia's Kosmos 2251 and US Iridium 33 satellites that collided in June 2008.
To date, according to Grudin, about 3,000 objects that pose a potential danger to the ISS have been detected by means of space monitoring in Russia and the United States.
