US Space Module Genesis II Might Crash into Relict Russian Satellite

The space habitat development company Bigelow Aerospace tweeted on Tuesday that two inoperative satellites, the US's Genesis II and Russia's Soviet-era Cosmos 1300, might collide.

While the odds of a crash are only 5.6 percent, Bigelow Aerospace, the owner of Genesis II, says it's another troubling sign that Earth's orbit is becoming dangerously crowded.

Bigelow Aerospace followed up with a warning about the rapid proliferation of space junk, a problem raised earlier when one of SpaceX's numerous StarLink satellites nearly crashed into a European Space Agency observation satellite.

"This proliferation, if not controlled in number, could become very dangerous to human life in low Earth orbit," Bigelow Aerospace tweeted.

The Bigelow Aerospace Genesis-2 module, designed to test the technology of commercial space stations, was launched into orbit in June 2007 and worked for about 2.5 years. The developer planned to create a commercial space station from transformable modules.

The Soviet-era satellite Cosmos-1300 was launched in August 1981 as part of the Tselina-D military space-based radio surveillance system.

Source: RIA Novosti

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