Hubble Shuttle Mission At Higher Risk From Space Junk
Posted on: Monday, 8 September 2008, 16:45 CDT
NASA announced on Monday that next month's shuttle flight to the Hubble Space Telescope faces an increased risk of getting hit by space junk because it will be in a higher, more littered orbit than usual.
Because of the increased risk, managers at NASA's highest levels will need to sign off on the mission.
The odds of a catastrophic strike by orbital debris including bits of space junk are at about 1-in-185 during Atlantis' upcoming mission to Hubble. That compares to 1-in-300 odds for a shuttle flight to the International Space Station, shuttle program director John Shannon said Monday.
Since the Hubble is at a considerably higher and dirtier orbit than the space station - 350 miles versus just over 200 miles. That extra altitude will expose Atlantis to more pieces of space junk, any of which could slam into the shuttle.
But Preston Burch, NASA's Hubble program manager, said space debris has not caused significant damage to Hubble since its launch in 1990.
Shannon said at a news conference that NASA's usual limit is a 1-in-200 chance of a catastrophic hit by space junk. While that's an arbitrary baseline, anything greater than that must be considered at the highest levels of NASA. Flight reviews will be held later this week and again, with top-level executives, later this month.
Seven astronauts will be aboard the spaceship, which is scheduled to launch Oct. 10.
Shannon said Orbital debris is the newest, biggest threat to an orbiting space shuttle, surpassing even the liftoff dangers of the main engines and booster rockets, and the always-dangerous re-entry.
He said it was partially due to the breakup of several orbiting craft in the past few years. China deliberately destroyed an old satellite last year, the U.S. military shot down a damaged spy satellite in February and a Russian satellite broke apart this past spring. All that generated a considerable amount of junk in orbit.
Shannon said NASA also understands more about the hazards of orbital debris and how to process the numbers. Some steps will be taken during the Atlantis flight - like reorienting the shuttle in orbit - to reduce the danger as much as possible.
NASA puts the overall odds of a catastrophic loss of a space shuttle during a mission at about 1-in-80. Shannon noted that history has shown the odds to be about 1-in-60.
Challenger—the 25th shuttle flight—was destroyed during liftoff in 1986. Columbia shattered during re-entry in 2003; it was the 113th shuttle flight.
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Source: redOrbit Staff & Wire Reports
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