Resurs-P No.1 was a Russian commercial
Earth observation satellite
An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...
capable of acquiring high-resolution imagery (resolution up to 1.0 m). It is one of a series of
Resurs-P spacecraft. The spacecraft was operated by
Roscosmos as a replacement of the
Resurs-DK No.1
Resurs-DK No.1, also called Resurs-DK1, was a commercial Earth observation satellite capable of transmitting high-resolution imagery (up to 0.9 m) to the ground stations as it passed overhead. The spacecraft was operated by NTs OMZ, the Russian ...
satellite until it ceased operations in 2021. In 2024 the satellite broke up, releasing objects into low earth orbit which required the crew of the ISS to take shelter.
Mission
The satellite was designed for multi-spectral
remote sensing of the Earth's surface aimed at acquiring high-quality visible images in near real-time as well as on-line data delivery via radio link and providing a wide range of consumers with value-added processed data.
In January 2022 the general director of
Progress Rocket Space Centre
The Progress Rocket Space Centre (russian: Ракетно-космический центр «Прогресс»), formerly known as TsSKB-Progress (russian: ЦСКБ-Прогресс), is a Russian joint-stock company under the jurisdiction ...
,
Dimitriy Baranov, announced that the satellite had been decommissioned in December 2021 because of "the failure of onboard equipment".
Breakup
Between June 26, 2024 at 13:05 UTC and June 27, 2024 at 00:51 UTC, Resurs-P1 released "a number of fragments" at an approximately 350 x 363 km
Low Earth orbit according to debris-tracking service
LeoLabs.
United States Space Command later confirmed that Resurs-P1 had broken up into over 100 pieces of trackable
space debris
Space debris (also known as space junk, space pollution, space waste, space trash, or space garbage) are defunct human-made objects in space—principally in Earth orbit—which no longer serve a useful function. These include derelict spacecr ...
at approximately 16:00 UTC on 26 June 2024; LeoLabs later that afternoon announced that it was tracking 180 pieces of debris. Although there was no immediate threat to other satellites, because this orbit was close to that of the
International Space Station its crew took shelter on the docked spacecraft for an hour as a precautionary measure.
This breakup likely happened because the satellite's
passivation was not performed properly or performed at all. The use of an
anti-satellite weapon was not in question since nothing of the sort was detected by any American or European assets.
See also
*
Resurs-P
References
External links
Roscosmos official website
{{Orbital launches in 2013
Spacecraft launched by Soyuz-2 rockets
Spacecraft launched in 2013
Spacecraft decommissioned in 2021
Spacecraft that broke apart in space
Resurs satellites