NASA announces that another satellite will almost hit the International Space Station

The number of satellites orbiting the Earth is increasing day by day. Thousands of satellites that have completed their mission but have come to a deactivated position and are still on duty are currently orbiting the Earth. Moreover, the number of these satellites is constantly increasing. Crowding of orbiting satellites also poses a risk to the International Space Station (ISS), the largest spacecraft there. NASA announced some time ago that such a risk was averted as a result of the intervention.

NASA stated in its blog post that a satellite on a collision course with the ISS has been detected. To avoid a possible collision, authorities fired the thrusters of the Progress 83 supply vehicle attached to the ISS, increasing the station’s orbit. NASA reported in its blog post that the thrusters had been in place for a little over six minutes and that the maneuver would not affect the upcoming Crew-5 mission.

The ISS escaped from an active-duty satellite for the first time

According to reports, the satellite that the ISS had to dodge appears to be an Argentina Earth observation satellite launched in 2020. This information comes from Sandra Jones at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. Also, an astronomer and astrophysicist at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics, Dr. Jonathan McDowell announced that he has narrowed down potential candidates to Nusat-17, one of ten commercial observation satellites operated by geospatial data company Satellogic. Dr. McDowell cites orbital disruption as the reason why the satellite entered orbit of the ISS.

The ISS is constantly making orbit corrections

As it turns out, this is not the first time the ISS has been forced to flee from an active-duty satellite. According to NASA’s 2022 report, the ISS has made 32 course corrections since 1999 to avoid satellites or space debris.

The previous course correction was made for the wreckage of the Cosmos 1408 satellite, which Russia destroyed in an anti-satellite (ASAT) weapons test in November 2021. The ISS made two course corrections to avoid the wreckage of the destroyed satellite. It seems that the danger of orbiting debris is escalating. Some pieces of debris can be even 1 centimeter in size and move at speeds of thousands of kilometers.