A sort of Russian The weapon test produced more than 1,500 pieces of space junk and now threatens seven astronauts internationally space According to US officials, the strike was reckless and irresponsible.
The US State Department confirmed on Monday that the debris came from an old Russian satellite that was destroyed by a missile.
“Needless to say, I am very angry. This is unreasonable,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson told the Associated Press. “It is incredible that the Russian government will conduct this test, not only threatening international astronauts, but also threatening their own astronauts on the space station” and the three people on the Chinese space station.
Nelson said that astronauts now face four times the normal risk. This is based on fragments that are large enough to track. Thousands of small fragments go undiscovered-“If it hits the correct location, any one of them will cause huge damage.”
Secretary of State Anthony Brinken said in condemning Russia that satellites are now also in danger.
Brinken said in a statement that the test clearly showed that Russia “despite its claims to oppose the weaponization of outer space, but is willing to … through its reckless and irresponsible behavior to endanger the exploration and use of outer space by all countries.”
Late Monday, Russia did not immediately comment on the missile attack.
Once the threat became apparent early on Monday morning, the four Americans, one German and two Russians on board were ordered to immediately seek asylum in the docked space capsule. They stayed in the two space capsules for two hours before they finally showed up. They only needed to close and reopen the hatches of the space station’s various laboratories in each orbit, or 1 1/2 hours, when they approached or passed through the debris. Time.
Nelson said that at the end of the day, only the hatch to the center of the space station remained open because the crew was sleeping.
When running at 17,500 mph (28,000 km/h), even a small piece of paint can cause major damage. A major event, once hit, can be catastrophic.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said that the United States has repeatedly raised concerns with Russia about conducting satellite tests.
“We will continue to make it clear that we will not tolerate such activities,” he told reporters.
NASA’s Mission Control Center said the growing threat may continue to interfere with astronauts’ scientific research and other work. Four of the seven crew members arrived at the orbital outpost on Thursday night.
NASA astronaut Mark Van der Hey is on a one-year mission. He called it a “crazy but coordinated day” because he said good night to the mission control center.
He said: “From our first working day in space, this is certainly a good way to connect with the crew.”
Similar weapons tests conducted by China in 2007 also caused countless fragments. Last week, one of the pieces threatened to approach the space station dangerously. Although it was later considered a risk, NASA moved the space station.
The US anti-satellite missile tests in 2008 and India in 2019 were conducted at much lower altitudes, well below the space station about 260 miles (420 kilometers).
The orbit of the abandoned Russian satellite Cosmos 1408 is about 40 miles (65 kilometers) higher.
As of Monday, the US Space Command has been tracking approximately 20,000 pieces of space junk, including old and damaged satellites from all over the world.
Jonathan McDowell of the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics said it would take days, even weeks, or even months to catalog the latest wrecks and confirm their orbits. He said in an email that due to atmospheric drag and other forces, debris will begin to spread over time.
McDowell said that the space station’s risk is particularly high because the test was conducted near its orbit. But he pointed out that in the next few years, all objects in low-Earth orbit-including China’s space station and even the Hubble Space Telescope-will face “a certain degree of risk.”
Earlier in the day, the Russian Space Agency said via Twitter that astronauts were ordered to enter the docked space capsule in case they had to flee quickly. The agency stated that the crew is resuming daily operations, and the space station commander Anton Shkaplerov, a Russian, wrote on Twitter: “Friends, everything is normal for us!”
But the debris cloud poses a threat to every passing orbit _ or every 1 1/2 hours _, and all robotic activities on the US side have been put on hold. German astronaut Matthias Maurer must also find safer sleeping places than European laboratories.
NASA’s Nelson pointed out that for half a century, the space cooperation between the Russians and the Americans can be traced back to the Apollo-Soyuz joint mission in 1975.
“I don’t want it to be threatened,” he told the Associated Press, noting that the space station needs two countries. “You must operate it together.”
-Associated Press reporters Matthew Lee and Robert Burns in Washington contributed.
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