The ISS crashed debris, cracked window

Damage to the window in the module "Dome". The diameter of the damaged area of ​​about 7 mm

Astronaut Tim Pike from the European Space Agency gave the photo damage to the window on the module "Dome" because of a collision with a small piece of space debris.

ESA specialists explained that the window was likely to flaking paint or a fragment of a small metal fragment of "no more than a few thousandths of a millimeter».

ISS orbits at 7, 66 km / s (27,600 km / h), so that any chip flying on another orbit, can cause damage. Illuminators station diameter of 80 cm and 10 cm thick, made of laminated quartz and borosilicate glass, so that collisions with such small fragments do not carry any threat. But fragments of a diameter of 1 cm can already call the "critical damage", and any fragment of more than 10 cm can "smash to pieces the satellite or spacecraft," says ESA.

ISS already undertook maneuvers to avoid the most dangerous and large debris. In 2014 the station orbit lifted nearly a kilometer, so as not to intersect with the estimated path of the old European rocket fragment descending stage Ariane 5.

Now NASA tracks more than 500 000 of relatively large debris.



Unfortunately, the amount of waste is constantly growing. For example, in 2007 the Chinese have tested a ballistic missile by shooting companion. It has added 3,000 new debris in orbit.

In 2009, the failed Russian spacecraft Cosmos 2251 accidentally collided with a US communications satellite Iridium (+2000 debris).

Space debris is not the first time damage the ISS. In 2013, a tiny "stone from outer space" struck the solar panel.



Photo sent by April 29, 2013 Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Source: geektimes.ru/post/275742/