From Ridus.ru:
Russian and Chinese satellites crashed in orbit
A Russian microsatellite orbiting the earth has crashed into the remains of a Chinese satellite which was decommissioned in 2007. As a result of the “accident”, our appliance was damaged, reports Space.com.
The collision occurred on the 22nd of January, but it is only just now that experts have been able to work out what happened after studying the orbits of both objects.
According to an assessment by Thomas Kelso, an expert from America’s Centre for Space Standards and Innovation, the remains of the Chinese satellite that “attacked” the Russian appliance was hardly more than 0.08 grams. However, it is still not entirely clear how severe the damage to the Russian satellite is.
Note that this is not the first time artificial satellites have collided in space. The historical debut for this sort of catastrophe was the accident between Kosmos-2251 and Iridium 33, respectively belonging to Russian and the USA. The satellites collided above the Taimyr peninsula in February 2009.
Comments from Ridus.ru:
iinniesuy:
The Americans have suggested a cause for the accident? Well done to the Americans. They’ve got engineers, scientists, researchers working over there. They’ve got everything. We should look on the American levels of production capacity and space exploration with respect.
Рыцарь Российского Либерального Языкоблудия: (responding to above)
I live in the USA. Everything costs three times less here, and salaries are ten times higher.
All of this is down to the American levels of production capacity.
Гурбангулы Бердымухамедов:
This is probably a dirty trick by the Chinese to surpass Russia. Ha.
Dobryak:
Nothing we can do any more – they shouln’t have littered in the first place.
fisenich:
0.08 grams!?!? … “after studying the orbits of both objects” … How can they track this tiny thing and not notice the Chebarkul meteorite???
Alex-3433: (responding to above)
This tiny thing was left over after a Chinese anti-satellite weapons test. The remnants of the cloud of needles that the Chinese shot down a disused weather satellite with will clog up space for a long time.
abdulla_hasan: (responding to above)
Pretty much all rubbish in orbit is being tracked, there’s a special directory.
The other problem is that even if the orbits crossed, it’s possible that the microsatellite didn’t have any corrective thrusters.
буся:
Well of course! There are as many Chinese satellites as there are Chinese! It’s hardly surprising that the collision was with one of theirs …
Алекс-8268:
What, aren’t our satellites equipped with flashing blue lights yet?! What are they doing there in Skolkovo?!
Владимир-3965:
As always! The “drivers” at the control panel had had “a couple of beers” …
команданте:
A friendly handshake in space!
вера-4518:
What do you think? Does China have a case to answer here?
