Secret Russian satellites crack and destroy in space. How come?
A secret Russian satellite launched nearly a decade ago has suffered a "rupture" in space, according to a tweet posted by the US Space Force's 18th Space Defense Squadron.
The Space Force said the Kosmos 2499 spacecraft disintegrated on Jan. 4 and unleashed a dangerous cloud of debris into orbit around the planet.
#18SDS has confirmed the breakup of COSMOS 2499 (#39765, 2014-028E) – occurred Jan 4, 2023 at appx 0357 UTC. Tracking 85 associated pieces at east 1169 km altitude – ongoing analysis. #spacedebris #space @SpaceTrackOrg @US_SpaceCom @ussfspoc
— 18th Space Defense Squadron (@18thSDS) February 7, 2023
Did they blow it up or failed to vent the tank and popped? At 1169km that junk is going to be there for a loooong time.
— Arcadiy Ivanov (@arcivanov) February 7, 2023
Business Insider and Space.com quoted RussianSpaceWeb.com 's Anatoly Zak as saying that Russia launched a launch vehicle in late 2013 that would deliver three military communications satellites into orbit. Subsequently, however, analysts found that, in addition to the three declared satellites, a fourth, secret, Kosmos 2499 had been launched.
Zak said the head of Roscosmos assured world leaders in 2014 that Kosmos 2499 was not a "satellite killer." Roscosmos has never disclosed the satellite's mission, but it is known that in the past it had approached the Russian Briz Ks satellite, which is believed to have been a component of a Soviet-era anti-satellite weapon project, and then transmitted telemetry data. As for the space debris, Brian Weeden, an expert on space junk at the Secure World Foundation, told Ars Technica that it's probably not a catastrophic event. So it could come from a collision with a piece of debris, a meteorite, or….
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Article Secret Russian satellites crack and destroy in space. How come? comes from Economic Scenarios .
This is a machine translation of a post published on Scenari Economici at the URL https://scenarieconomici.it/satelli-segreto-russo-si-spezza-e-distrugge-nello-spazio-come-mai/ on Sat, 11 Feb 2023 18:04:48 +0000.