New episode in the case of the Russian satellite destroyed last year by Moscow: debris grazed a Chinese satellite during an "
extremely dangerous
" incident, according to Beijing.
The Chinese are conducting an ambitious space program.
It includes the launch of observation and positioning satellites, for military or civilian purposes, or even the sending of probes to the Moon or Mars as well as manned missions.
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The Chinese scientific satellite Tsinghua was grazed Tuesday at “
only 14.5 meters
” by “
debris
” from the Russian satellite Kosmos-1408, according to the Space Debris Center of the Chinese Space Agency (CNSA), quoted Tuesday January 18 by the Global Times newspaper.
Space authorities described the incident
as "extremely dangerous
", according to the same source.
A “very high” collision probability
The Russian Ministry of Defense had admitted in mid-November, after a day of silence, to have pulverized by a missile test firing the Kosmos-1408, an old satellite dating from the Soviet era. The United States had denounced this test which, according to them, had generated a “
cloud
” of potentially dangerous debris for the International Space Station (ISS), its occupants and more generally for the other machines present in space.
A space debris expert, Liu Jing, told the Global Times that it is rare for debris and spacecraft to be only about ten meters away.
According to him, the probability of a collision was this time “
very high
” and theoretically it would have been necessary to take avoidance measures.
This incident comes after the revelation last month of other similar incidents involving two satellites of the American company SpaceX.
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Beijing had denounced a "
serious threat
" to the safety of its astronauts after the machines of the company founded by billionaire Elon Musk had narrowly missed colliding with the Chinese space station.
According to a document sent in early December by Beijing to the Office for Outer Space Affairs of the United Nations in Vienna, the Chinese space station had to twice, in July and October, carry out evasive maneuvers.
