2009 satellite collision

On February 10, 2009, two communications satellites—the active commercial Iridium 33 and the derelict Russian military Kosmos 2251—accidentally collided at a speed of 11.7 km/s (26,000 mph) and an altitude of 789 kilometres (490 mi) above the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia.

[16] NASA determined the risk to the International Space Station, which orbits about 430 kilometres (270 mi) below the collision course, to be low,[8][17] as was any threat to the shuttle launch (STS-119) then planned for late February 2009.

A small piece of Kosmos-2251 satellite debris safely passed by the International Space Station at 2:38 a.m. EDT, Saturday, March 24, 2012, at a distance of approximately 120 m (390 ft).

As a precaution, ISS management had the six crew members on board the orbiting complex take refuge inside the two docked Soyuz rendezvous spacecraft until the debris had passed.

[26] The National Weather Service issued an information statement alerting residents of sonic booms due to the falling satellite debris.

[29] This collision and numerous near-misses have renewed calls for mandatory disposal of defunct satellites (typically by deorbiting them, or at minimum, sending them to a graveyard orbit), but no such international law exists as of 2024.

[30] The United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) requires all geostationary satellites launched after March 18, 2002 to commit to moving to a graveyard orbit at the end of their operational life.