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Photo of the International Space Station (ISS) with the docked European science laboratory Columbus
Photo: dpa
Science fiction writers and cosmologists like to conjure up the vastness of the universe.
If you consider space and time in the 13.8 billion years up to the Big Bang, from which the universe arose according to the current model, that is certainly true.
But if you approach the earth from space, the emptiness will soon be over.
Satellites and space telescopes are buzzing around in their orbits by the hundreds.
In illustrations that capture everything that flies around on artificial objects up there, it sometimes looks as if the earth is surrounded by a swarm of mosquitoes.
Around 2,700 satellites alone orbit the earth at the end of March 2020.
In addition, there are innumerable pieces of space junk - all of this results in a dangerous mass that can cause considerable damage to space travel.
Also for the International Space Station ISS at a height of 400 kilometers, technical debris and flying satellites are now and then a danger.
Given the high speeds of more than 28,000 kilometers per hour, even a piece of just a few millimeters in size could have disastrous consequences in the outer skin of the ISS.
The ISS will therefore change course on Monday to prevent a possible collision with a US satellite.
This was announced by the Russian space agency Roskosmos in Moscow.
The evasive maneuver should take place on Monday night.
According to calculations by Russian experts, the ISS will come dangerously close to the military satellite.
This was only brought into space last year and has meanwhile "turned into space debris," it said.
There are currently three space travelers on the ISS.
The ISS commanders have had to perform such maneuvers a number of times.
Sometimes the crew ignited their own engines for this purpose, but sometimes a docked spaceship provides the necessary thrust.
In the past few months, Russian experts have examined the ISS for deficiencies.
The human outpost has been in space for more than 20 years and is only supposed to run until 2024.
However, there are plans to operate the station for another six years.
To do this, however, it has to work technically flawlessly.
Experts also fear that Earth orbit could become much tighter in the coming years.
Private tech companies are currently in a race to conquer space with Earth's satellites and are planning to use thousands more satellites in the coming years.
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joe / dpa
