U.S.-China Spacecraft Debris Collide in Orbit

[KingCobra]

True Story!

Quote:

In a unique case of space bumper cars, two pieces of rocket hardware have collided high above Earth. The orbital run-in involved a 31-year-old U.S. rocket body and a fragment from a more recently launched Chinese rocket stage.

The collision occurred on January 17 of this year, with the incident happening some 550 miles (885 kilometers) above Earth. That area of low Earth orbit (LEO) has an above-average satellite population density. The American and Chinese space hardware cruised through space in similar orbits at the time of the rear-ender.

The Orbital Debris Quarterly News also reports another accidental collision.

Code:

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=96&ncid=96&e=1&u=/space/20050416/sc_space/uschinaspacecraftdebriscollideinorbit