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Space Debris White Paper

 Space Launch, Inc.

March 12, 2009
ISS Astronauts Evacuate into Soyuz Because of Collision Threat.

NBC Nightly News (3/12, story 7, 0:30, Williams) reported, "There was a brief mayday...on board the International Space Station. The three astronauts living there had to evacuate into a module that serves as their emergency lifeboat after a piece of floating space debris came very close to hitting them inside the space station. The evacuation lasted 11 minutes. The grapefruit-sized piece of old rocket motor floated safely by, thankfully."

The Problem

Urgency for a Solution

•On Feb 10, an active Iridium satellite collided with an expired Russian spacecraft adding some 900 new debris pieces to the 17,000+ already in the catalog.

•This is the first known satellite-to-satellite collision.

•Debris pieces scatter among the highly populated orbital plane of Iridium (66 satellites + spares) adding additional risk of subsequent collision

–Don Kessler expects another Iridium type event in about 10 years.

–TS Kelso anticipates a high probability of another collision within months.

•Debris will pose a heightened threat to a few hundred satellites and the manned International Space Station for years to come!

The “Do Nothing” Solution – The Kessler Syndrome

Attempts to Address the Problem

Potential Funding Sources

The Space Trash Collector


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