Potential satellite collision shows need for active debris removal

WASHINGTON — Two decades-old defunct spacecraft are in danger of colliding Jan. 29, an event experts argue is more evidence of the need to clean up low Earth orbit.

LeoLabs, a California company that operates a network of ground-based radars that track objects in orbit, announced Jan. 27 that it had identified a potential conjunction, or close approach, between the Infrared Astronomical Satellite (IRAS) and the Gravity Gradient Stabilization Experiment (GGSE) 4 satellite in LEO. The company said there was an approximately 1-in-100 chance that the two satellites would collide at 6:39 p.m. Eastern Jan. 29 an altitude of about 900 kilometers, almost directly above the city of Pittsburgh.

LeoLabs, in an update Jan. 28, revised the probability of a collision downward, to about 1 in 1,000, estimating that the two spacecraft will pass between 13 and 87 meters of each other. Other sources have estimated similar probabilities of a collision between the two objects using other data, such as that from the catalog maintained by the U.S. Air Force.

https://spacenews.com/potential-satellite-collision-shows-need-for-active-debris-removal/