samedi 4 mai 2013

A year ago, a collision was averted between Fermi Gamma-ray Observatory and a oldest soviet spy satellite out of service










Satellite Collision.

May 4, 2013

 Predicted collision on March 29, 2012

NASA scientists provided details this week of how they dodged a 1.5-ton bullet in space last year when they had to fire the thruster engines on the Fermi Gamma-ray Telescope to nudge it out of the way and narrowly avoid a collision with a 26-year-old defunct Soviet-era satellite.

Cosmos 1805 satellite

NASA said it learned of the possible collision on March 29, 2012 when it received an automatically generated report indicating that the $690 million Fermi Space Telescope and the Soviet Cosmos 1805 satellite would pass within 700 feet (213 meters) of each other in a week.

Fermi Gamma-ray Observatory spacecraft

Fermi mission scientists monitored the impending close call and then determined that the two spacecraft would actually pass within 30 milliseconds of each other.

Images, Text, Credits: Voice of Russia / RIA / NASA / Youtube.

Greetings, Orbiter.ch