Part of a spacecraft crash test of Russian anti-satellite weapons forced the International Space Station to move in order to avoid orbital debris on Thursday (June 16). Russia’s space shuttle Roscosmos has used the unused Progress 81 spacecraft suspended at the International Space Station to remove a spherical laboratory fragmented piece of Russian satellite space Cosmos 1408, sharing a video of what happened on the telegram. Russia destroyed a disused Soviet-era satellite in November 2021 to test anti-satellite missiles.
“I confirm that at 22.03 in Moscow time, the engines of the Russian Progress MS-20 cargo ship did a random job to avoid the dangerous path of the International Space Station and the Kosmos-1408 spacecraft,” Roscosmos official Dmitry said. Rogozin wrote to Telegram, according to a Google translation, using Roscosmos’ name Progress 81.
The cargo ship Progress 81 fired its thrusters for 4 minutes and 34 seconds to clear the main space station away from the Cosmos-1408 piece line and slightly lift the station cycle. “Staff has never been in danger and this practice has not affected the operation of the station,” wrote NASA officials in a review.
The Cosmos 1408 was a Soviet Electronic and Signals Intelligence satellite based on Tselina-D launched in 1982 from Russia’s Plesetsk Cosmodrome, according to a NASA report.
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