There is a problem with junk in space as well as on Earth. More and more rocket stages, broken satellites, and other bits of debris are thrown into the ocean every year. There is a lot of junk in the space where satellites, telescopes, and even the International Space Station are located.
A European Space Agency research satellite had to perform an emergency maneuver in order to avoid a collision with a piece of debris. The need to perform such maneuvers is fairly common, but this event was different because there was only hours of warning before the crash.
Typically, large pieces of debris are tracked so that space agencies or other satellite operators know when a piece is about to travel to a different part of the world. They have the ability to plan out maneuvers in advance. When a piece of debris was spotted on June 30, it was predicted that it would hit one of the European Space Agency's satellites.
The warning of a potential collision between a piece of debris and a satellite is raised by the space debris office. We only got eight hours' notice.
It took a lot of planning to get the satellite out of the path of the debris. The operators have to make sure that the satellite doesn't get too close to any other satellites or debris, and that they have a plan for how to return the satellite to its original location once the danger has passed.
The Swarm satellite was about to perform a maneuver to avoid the increased density of the upper atmosphere when it was threatened by debris. The operators of the European Space Agency had to figure out a way to avoid space junk and make sure that the Swarm satellite could enter its higher altitude. The avoidance maneuver was calculated in just four hours.
The satellite can return to its research work now that it's safe. This incident shows how dangerous space debris can be, and it will only get worse until action is taken by all space agencies and private space companies to address it.
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