ISS Astronauts Forced to Briefly Take Shelter as Russian Satellite Suddenly Breaks Up in Orbit

A decommissioned Russian satellite in low-Earth orbit unexpectedly splintered into more than 100 pieces on Wednesday, temporarily sending International Space Station (ISS) astronauts into precautionary shelters.

The satellite, called Resurs-P1, was roughly 220 miles above Earth’s surface when it broke up. While “no immediate threats” were detected, according to a statement from U.S. Space Command, the nine-person crew aboard the ISS—which orbits roughly 250 miles above Earth—briefly sheltered within three docked spacecraft out of an abundance of caution. Two astronauts went into the Boeing Starliner, which is experiencing an extended stay at the station, while the others went into SpaceX’s Crew Dragon and the Russian Soyuz capsules.

After about an hour, all were cleared to resume normal operations—which likely involved getting back to bed, as the incident occurred during the astronauts’ typical sleep period.

It is currently unclear why the satellite suddenly fragmented. The event, detected by LeoLabs, a U.S.-based space-tracking firm, has so far gone unacknowledged by the Russian space agency, Roscosmos. Scientists speculated a technical malfunction caused the satellite’s explosion or that it collided with another piece of space junk.

Perhaps more concerningly, there is also the possibility that its destruction was deliberate—maybe as a follow-up to Russia’s 2021 anti-satellite (ASAT) missile test, in which the country intentionally destroyed a defunct satellite, to the chagrin of the international community. During the 88-minute window in which Resurs-P1 broke apart, it did pass above the rocket site that launched the 2021 test. However, in 2021 Russia gave advance notice of the event; there was seemingly no message prior to the fragmentation of Resurs-P1, and no known tracking systems picked up any signals of a launch.

“I can’t rule it out at this point, but I also can’t rule in,” Jonathan McDowell, an astronomer at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard & Smithsonian, tells the New York Times’ Katrina Miller.

“I find it hard to believe they would use such a big satellite as an ASAT target,” McDowell adds to Reuters’ Joey Roulette. “But, with the Russians these days, who knows?”

On Thursday afternoon, LeoLabs announced it had detected at least 180 pieces of the satellite floating in space, adding to the growing density of space junk within low-Earth orbit.

Currently, 25,000 pieces of human-made debris measuring four inches or larger float within the upper layers of Earth’s atmosphere. Totaling all the objects larger than one millimeter brings this number to over 100 million—increasing the likelihood of crash risks and damage to future launches and projects.

Added to this crowd are the roughly 7,560 operational satellites orbiting Earth—providing internet, communications, military and imaging functionalities. This hardware can be damaged by collisions with space debris—even tiny pieces become dangerous projectiles when traveling at high velocities in orbit.

“Due to the low orbit of this [new] debris cloud, we estimate it’ll be weeks to months before the hazard has passed,” LeoLabs tells Reuters in a statement.

Resurs-P1 was launched in June 2013 by Russia to capture Earth imagery related to agriculture, weather and transportation. It was decommissioned in late 2021, and had since been drifting within Earth’s orbit, slowly moving closer to an eventual demise upon re-entry into the atmosphere.

Christian Thorsberg | READ MORE

Christian Thorsberg is an environmental writer and photographer from Chicago. His work, which often centers on freshwater issues, climate change and subsistence, has appeared in Circle of Blue, Sierra magazine, Discover magazine and Alaska Sporting Journal.