Space station crew has close call with space junk

Space station crew has close call with space junk

Bob, in Texas, sent me a heads up about a recent close call from space junk for the ISS. Thanks Bob.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D96SMFQ02&show_article=1

----------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html
snip
MCC-Houston CAPCOM Kathy Bolt spoke with Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke about the possible conjunction of an estimated 13-centimeter-diameter piece of space debris with the station. Listen to an edited clip of the highlights of the conversation including the first notification that went to the crew and the all-clear notification.

+ Listen to the audio clip of the conversation (2.1 Mb MP3)
http://www.nasa.gov/mp3/318202main_tca_highlights_clip3.mp3
snip
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here are two more links you might check out. - LRK -
http://www.usatoday.com/tech/science/space/2009-03-12-space-station_N.htm

http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2009/03/station-crew-shelters-from-approaching.shtml

I suppose that with more satellite launches and more collisions of old satellites the chances of near misses will only increase.
Some have mentioned that we should be looking more closely to what is up there and folks are doing that.
- LRK -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Orbital Debris Quarterly News - October 2008 - [1042 KB PDF]
http://orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov/newsletter/pdfs/ODQNv12i4.pdf
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Here we have seen another example of debris in Earth orbit causing problems.
I wonder what will happen when we start sending folks to the Moon?
Will we have debris in solar orbit drop in unexpectedly?
- LRK -
----------------------------------------------------------------------
Newly Discovered Object Could be a Leftover Apollo Rocket Stage
September 11, 2002
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news134.html
----------------------------------------------------------------------

Where will all of our booster stages end up then?
In the ocean, in lunar orbit, in solar orbit to come back later?
Fly along with us and follow us to the Lunar surface?

Thanks for looking up with me.

Larry Kellogg

Web Site: http://lkellogg.vttoth.com/LarryRussellKellogg/
BlogSpot: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/
RSS link: http://kelloggserialreports.blogspot.com/atom.xml
Newsletter: https://news.altair.com/mailman/listinfo/lunar-update
==============================================================
http://www.floridatoday.com/content/blogs/space/2009/03/station-crew-shelters-from-approaching.shtml
Thursday, March 12, 2009
Station Crew Shelters From Approaching Debris

Blogger update, 1:05 p.m.: The small piece of space debris that threatened the International Space Station crew has passed without incident, NASA has confirmed.

The three-person crew is exiting the Soyuz spacecraft, opening U.S. hatches and returning to normal duties. They were given the "all clear" at 12:45 p.m. EDT.
snip

The debris is expected to pass about 4.5 kilometers from the station, and the shletering is a precautionary measure. The crew would be ready to abandon ship if the debris for some reason struck the station and caused a decompression.

The piece was spotted approaching the area of the station late Wednesday. The crew sealed the U.S. segment of the outpost. The decision to shelter was made because it was deemed too late to execute a collision-avoidance maneuver.
snip
==============================================================
http://neo.jpl.nasa.gov/news/news134.html
Newly Discovered Object Could be a Leftover Apollo Rocket Stage
September 11, 2002
Paul Chodas
Near-Earth Object Program Office

An analysis of the orbital motion of the newly discovered object J002E3 indicates that it could be a leftover Saturn V third stage from one of the Apollo missions, most likely the Apollo 12 mission, launched on November 14, 1969.

The new object was discovered on September 3 by Bill Yeung, who noted that it was moving quite rapidly. Initial orbit computations by the Minor Planet Center indicated that the object was only about twice as far away as the Moon, and was actually in orbit about our planet. This fact, combined with the rather faint intrinsic magnitude, immediately led astronomers to suspect that the object is actually a spacecraft or rocket body, not an asteroid. But the object could not be associated with any recent launch.

snip
==============================================================

WHAT THE MIND CAN CONCEIVE, AND BELIEVE, IT WILL ACHIEVE - LRK

==============================================================