Debris falling across Texas, satellite collision likely cause

Dallas, February 16: The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has received a number of calls stating that debris is falling in Texas. According to FAA officials, debris could be related to the U.S. and Russian satellites collision that took place last week.

Last week, in a unique space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and Russian non operational satellite collided above northern Siberia. According to the officials, the collision has created a huge cloud of debris.

The term debris, in space and astronomy terminology, is generally used for the remains of spacecraft that have either fallen on earth or are still orbiting earth. The space debris may also consist of natural components like chunks of rocks and ice.

Iridium Satellite LLC operates 66 satellites, and deals with orbital spares, to support satellite telephone operations around the world.

Ninety-five Iridium satellites were launched between the years 1997 and 2002, and several have failed over the years.

According to the chief of Russia's Mission Control, the clouds of debris may pose risks to the numerous satellites and will also circle earth.

NASA has carried out an immediate analysis whether the space station faced any risk from debris.

Nicholas Johnson, NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Centre in Houston, said, "There are two issues: the immediate threat and a longer-term threat. It turns out, when you have a collision like this the debris is thrown very energetically both to higher orbits and to lower orbits.

“So there are actually debris from this event which we believe are going through the space station's altitude already. Most of it is not, most of it is still clustered up where the event took place. But a small number are going through station's altitude.”

The FAA pilots were aware of possible debris after collision. Some callers have reported that the debris looked like fireball in the sky.

FAA spokesman Roland Herwig said that the debris could be related to the collision, but he also said that this has not been confirmed.