How the ISS carrying Emirati astronauts avoided a satellite collision earlier this week – News

Crews on the International Space Station and on Earth must work together to execute maneuvers

Earlier this week, the International Space Station (ISS) had to maneuver to avoid a collision with an approaching satellite.

The orbital outpost — which has the UAE’s own astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi on board — was executed early Monday thanks to an oncoming Earth-observing satellite, according to NASA. evasive action.

“The docked ISS Progress 83 resupply ship fired its engines for just over six minutes, slightly raising the orbit of the space station to avoid the approaching satellite,” NASA said.

The evasive maneuver is essentially a course correction for the ISS. With enough warning of a potential collision (as was the case this time), a new trajectory can be calculated. The crew on the spacecraft and the ground team then worked together to schedule a “thrust burn” to correct the course of the ISS and propel it into a new orbit.

Evasive actions of this nature are not uncommon for the International Space Station, which has made four such corrections in the past two years.For example, as early as 2021, astronauts on the International Space Station forced to prepare for a possible evacuation After a debris generation event in outer space. NASA astronauts and Russian cosmonauts retreated back to their spacecraft, which can be used as a lifeboat to return the crew safely to Earth in the event of an emergency.

A Reuters report at the time noted that the U.S. government had tracked down about 23,000 pieces of debris larger than a softball orbiting the Earth. “Debris, especially near the International Space Station, orbits the Earth 15 to 16 times a day, increasing the risk of collisions,” it said.

NASA further confirmed that the new orbital trajectory “will not affect” the upcoming Crew-5 mission, which launches on Thursday, March 9.Will Supervise all operations and experiments in the orbital lab. One of their tasks is to prepare for the arrival of the next Dragon spacecraft – SpaceX’s CRS-27 cargo Dragon spacecraft, which is currently scheduled to launch on March 14.

Emirati astronaut Sultan AlNeyadi lifts off on March 2, 2023 aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and Dragon spacecraft.he and his crew Docked at the International Space Station The longest Arab space mission will begin the next day, March 3.He will spend 6 months on the International Space Station, conducting important experiment Help us understand outer space and life on Earth.