space debris
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Building a Spacecraft to Deorbit ISS ‘Not Optional,’ Claims NASA Safety Panel
Failure to properly dispose of the space station could result in catastrophe, the panel warns.
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Satellite’s Final Moments Captured Before Intentional Destruction
In late July, the Aeolus Earth Explorer satellite plunged through Earth’s atmosphere to burn up as scraps. Its unprecedented controlled reentry was captured through a series of images that show the spacecraft during its tumbling, fiery demise. The European Space Agency (ESA) released a new animation made from the last eight images taken of Aeolus,…
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A Space Junk Removal Mission Got Struck By Space Junk
In a sad case of debris-on-debris crime, a defunct payload adapter that was chosen as the subject of a space debris cleanup mission was itself hit by a piece of space junk. The VESPA payload adapter has been floating in Earth’s orbit following the launch of a Vega rocket in 2013, adding to the thousands…
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Defunct Wind Satellite Set for Unprecedented ‘Assisted’ Reentry
A mighty wind satellite has been losing altitude at a steady pace of nearly one mile per day, falling towards the surface of Earth. The European Space Agency (ESA) will attempt to guide the satellite on its way down to minimize risk of damage as its pieces hit the ground. ESA’s Aeolus satellite, named after…