Stories
Slash Boxes
Comments

SoylentNews is people

posted by janrinok on Wednesday September 04 2019, @07:31AM   Printer-friendly

About a week ago, the 18th Space Control Squadron, US Air Force, relayed warning data to the European Space Agency.

The data indicated that there was a non-negligible collision risk between ESA's Aeolus satellite and Starlink44, an active SpaceX satellite, at 11:02 UTC on Monday, 2 September.

As days passed, the probability of collision continued to increase, and by Wednesday, August 28, ESA's Ops team decided to reach out to Starlink to discuss their options. Within a day, the Starlink team informed ESA that they had no plan to take action at that point. By Thursday evening, ESA's probability threshold for conducting an avoidance manoeuvre had been reached, and preparations were made to lift Aeolus 350 meter in orbit. By Sunday evening, chances of a collision had risen to 1 in 1000, and commands were sent to the Aeolus satellite, which triggered a total of 3 thruster burns on Monday morning, half an orbit before the potential collision. About half an hour after the collision prediction time, Aeolus contacted base, and normal measurement operations could continue.

What the SpaceX satellite was doing in ESA's Aeolus orbit is not clear.

ESA has taken the opportunity to point out that, given SpaceX plans to put up 20,000 of those things, handling monitoring and avoidance semi-manually, and by mail, is no longer practical.


Original Submission

 
This discussion has been archived. No new comments can be posted.
Display Options Threshold/Breakthrough Mark All as Read Mark All as Unread
The Fine Print: The following comments are owned by whoever posted them. We are not responsible for them in any way.
  • (Score: 0, Offtopic) by Runaway1956 on Wednesday September 04 2019, @02:07PM

    by Runaway1956 (2926) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday September 04 2019, @02:07PM (#889527) Journal

    One of them got lost, and ended up in the "New World" - that's history. Now, we've got Euros bumbling around way up above the sky? There's no telling what they'll stumble onto up there. We need to keep an eye on them. The conquistadors never did find that fountain of youth, did they? It's likely up there in the heavens somewhere, and the Euros are looking for it!

    Starting Score:    1  point
    Moderation   -2  
       Offtopic=1, Overrated=1, Total=2
    Extra 'Offtopic' Modifier   0  
    Karma-Bonus Modifier   +1  

    Total Score:   0