In a recent incident in space, a Russian aircraft came so close to the U.S. satellite that it was just 10 meters away from colliding with it. According to The Mirror’s report, the collision could have endangered lives. As the incident happened, NASA’s Deputy Administrator, Colonel Pam Melroy, showed a deep concern for this and mentioned that they were lucky that the collision did not occur.
While speaking at the Space Foundation’s Space Symposium in Colorado, Melroy mentioned, “It was very shocking personally and for all of us at NASA. On February 28, a NASA spacecraft called Timed and a Russian satellite, neither of them maneuverable, were expected to make a close path.”
He also mentioned that if the collision had happened, we all could have seen debris generations and hundreds of millions of tiny shards coming to the base at more than 10,000 miles per hour, which could have caused holes in another spacecraft and threatened human life.
Russian space authorities also confirmed that there is an ongoing air leak in the Russian part of the International Space Station, which does not pose any threat or harm to the crew.
Later, Roscosmos also mentioned that the experts are closely monitoring the entire situation, and the crew is coordinating works to locate and fix possible spots of the leak. The Russian News Agencies also confirmed that there was no threat to the crew or the station itself.
Back in November 2021, a possible leak was identified in another area of the Russian portion of the station. But at that time, both Roscosmoc and NASA confirmed that the leak did not disrupt the space station operations and risk to crew.
