National Aeronautics and Space Administration Orbital Debris Quarterly News Volume 14, Issue 3 July 2010 New U.S. National Space Policy Inside... Cites Orbital Debris Disposal of TDRS-1 2 • Lead the continued development and Top Ten Satellite adoption of international and industry Breakups 2 standards and policies to minimize debris, such as the United Nations Space Debris Drifting in GEO 3 Mitigation Guidelines; Measurements of • Develop, maintain, and use space the Orbital Debris situational awareness (SSA) information Environment by the from commercial, civil, and national Haystack & HAX Radars security sources to detect, identify, and During FY2007 3 attribute actions in space that are contrary Overview of Orbital to responsible use and the long-term Debris Optical President Barack sustainability of the space environment: NATIONAL SPACE POLICY Measurements via Obama issued his of the Laboratory first National Space UNITED STATES of A MER ICA • Continue to follow the United States Techniques 5 Policy for the United Government Orbital Debris Mitigation States of America Standard Practices, consistent with mission Abstracts from the on 28 June, including requirements and cost effectiveness, in the NASA Orbital Debris J U N E 2 8 , 2 0 10 specific references procurement and operation of spacecraft, Program Office 7 to orbital debris launch services, and the conduct of tests Meeting Reports 11 mitigation and long- and experiments in space; term sustainability of Space Missions and the space environment. • Pursue research and development of Orbital Box Score 12 Since 1988 each U.S. President has set forth clear technologies and techniques, through the objectives for limiting the growth of the orbital debris Administrator of the National Aeronautics population in their national space policies. For the and Space Administration (NASA) and first time, the national space policy noted the need the Secretary of Defense, to mitigate and to pursue research and development of technologies remove on-orbit debris, reduce hazards, and techniques to remove orbital debris. and increase understanding of the current Under the heading Preserving the Space Environment and future debris environment; and and the Responsible Use of Space, the new national space policy reads as follows: • Require the head of the sponsoring department or agency to approve “Preserve the Space Environment. For the exceptions to the United States A publication of purposes of minimizing debris and preserving the Government Orbital Debris Mitigation the NASA Orbital space environment for the responsible, peaceful, and Standard Practices and notify the Secretary Debris Program Office safe use of all users, the United States shall: of State.” ♦ Orbital Debris Quarterly News Disposal of TDRS-1 The venerable TDRS 1 spacecraft Carried into orbit during the maiden flights of the Space Shuttle fleet, TDRS 1 (1983-026B, U.S. Satellite Number 13969), voyage of the Space Shuttle Challenger (STS-6) became a vital communications link in 1998 the inaugural member of NASA’s essential in April 1983, TDRS 1 survived a malfunction for the National Science Foundation’s Tracking and Data Relay System, performed a of the Inertial Upper Stage which was to carry Antarctic research stations. Following a complex series of maneuvers during June to the spacecraft from low Earth orbit into GEO. mission-ending payload failure, TDRS 1 was boost the vehicle more than 350 km above the Left in an orbit far below GEO, TDRS 1 was finally decommissioned on 28 October 2009, geosynchronous orbit (GEO) into a long-term able to use its own ample propulsion system to after more than 26 years of operation. The disposal orbit. reach GEO and to begin its communications spacecraft was transferred from its last service relay mission later location of 49 W to a temporary storage that year. However, location at 56.5 W to await preparations for its in the orbit-raising final disposal. p r o c e s s, t h e On 5 June 2010 TDRS 1 began an 8-day primary reaction series of maneuvers to lift the spacecraft well control system was away from the congested GEO regime. At that disabled with an point, TDRS 1, which had been designed and apparent leak, and built in the 1970s, still had more than 120 kg of future operations residual propellant on board without a means with the secondary for venting it. To passivate the spacecraft, reaction control the vehicle was placed in a spin-stable solar- s y s t e m w e r e oriented attitude. Then, increasingly longer impaired. burns of two thrusters were initiated for a total After more burn time of 24 hours. Fuel depletion was than 14 years of finally achieved on 26 June, at which time the service supporting rest of 1.6 metric ton TDRS 1 was passivated a variety of NASA and turned-off. ♦ missions, including Figure 1. TDRS-1 spacecraft. Top Ten Satellite Breakups Although more than 4700 space Table 1. Top 10 Breakups, May 2010 missions have been conducted worldwide Year of Altitude of Cataloged Debris in since the beginning of the Space Age, only Common Name Cause of Breakup Breakup Breakup Debris* Orbit* 10 missions account for one-third of all cataloged objects currently in Earth orbit. Fengyun-1C 2007 850 km 2841 2756 Intentional Collision Perhaps surprisingly, 6 of these 10 debris- Cosmos 2251 2009 790 km 1267 1215 Accidental Collision producing events occurred within the past STEP 2 Rocket Body 1996 625 km 713 63 Accidental Explosion 10 years, despite the decades-long efforts of the international aerospace community to Iridium 33 2009 790 km 521 498 Accidental Collision eliminate the creation of long-lived debris. Cosmos 2421 2008 410 km 509 18 Unknown Notably, only one of these satellite breakups, SPOT 1 Rocket Body 1986 805 km 492 33 Accidental Explosion albeit the most severe, was the result of an intentional act (Table 1). OV 2-1 / LCS 2 Rocket Body 1965 740 km 473 36 Accidental Explosion By far the source of the greatest Nimbus 4 Rocket Body 1970 1075 km 374 248 Accidental Explosion amount of orbital debris is the Fengyun- TES Rocket Body 2001 670 km 370 116 Accidental Explosion 1C spacecraft, which was the subject of a Chinese anti-satellite test in 2007 (ODQN: CBERS 1 Rocket Body 2000 740 km 343 189 Accidental Explosion April and July 2007; January, April, and July Total: 7903 Total: 5172 2008; January and July 2009; and April 2010). * As of May 2010 continued on page 3 www.orbitaldebris.jsc.nasa.gov Top Ten continued from page 2 This satellite alone now accounts for more than the first ever accidental hypervelocity impact Not listed in the table is the breakup of 2750 cataloged fragments or about 18% of of intact objects in February 2009. Due to the the Briz-M orbital stage that broke-up into an the entire population of cataloged man-made altitude of this collision and low solar activity estimated 1000 plus fragments in February 2007 objects in orbit about the planet. Hundreds levels, only 4% of each debris cloud have thus (ODQN, April 2007). However, the highly more debris from this test are currently being far fallen out of orbit. elliptical nature of the stage’s orbit (~500 km tracked by the U.S. Space Surveillance Network Fortunately, less than 10% of the cataloged by nearly 15,000 km) has impeded the SSN’s (SSN) and will be officially cataloged in due fragments from the third most prolific source ability to detect, to identify, and to catalog the course. of orbital debris, the STEP 2 rocket body, still associated debris. By May 2010, only 85 debris The second and fourth most significant remain in orbit. Likewise, the debris of three from the Briz-M stage had been officially satellite breakups are the Cosmos 2251 and other major debris generators have fallen below cataloged. ♦ Iridium 33 spacecraft, which were involved in 10% of their original numbers. Drifting in GEO A major malfunction on 5 April resulted in spacecraft began a very slow drift eastward and, have sufficient warning to perform a collision a sudden and complete loss of control of the if control over the vehicle cannot be restored, avoidance maneuver, if warranted. Galaxy 15 spacecraft (2005-041A, U.S. Satellite will likely enter a long-period oscillation orbit Galaxy 15 joins a large number (>150) Number 28884). Originally stationed over the around the geopotential stable point at 105 W, of other derelict spacecraft and launch vehicle equator at 133 W, the approximately one-ton moving from 133 W to 77 W and back again. orbital stages that are drifting back and forth Although Galaxy 15 in the geosynchronous (GEO) region. Last will pass close to other year three Russian spacecraft failed to perform operational spacecraft in any disposal maneuvers, which are designed the Western Hemisphere, to keep the vehicles at least 200 km above the the U.S. Space Surveillance GEO altitude of 35,786 km. In 2008, two Network is closely other spacecraft, one U.S. and one Russian, also watching its movement failed to maneuver out of GEO at their end of and will advise operators mission. of other spacecraft should Of more immediate concern to other a potentially hazardous GEO spacecraft operators was the threat of conjunction, i.e., a pass of radio interference from the still functioning less than 5 km between two Galaxy 15 payload. Several attempts to turn-off spacecraft, be forecast. In Galaxy 15’s transmitters failed. However, a loss such an event the operator of attitude control is expected to lead to a shut- of the other spacecraft will down of the transmitters later this year. ♦ Figure 1. Galaxy 15 spacecraft (credit: Orbital Sciences Corporation).