Published Wednesday 15 Dec 2021
The growing amount of space debris orbiting the earth risks a ‘catastrophic impact’ with the International Space Station (ISS), Tim Peake has warned.
Major Peake, the first British astronaut to walk in space, said communications satellites vital to many aspects of modern life were all potentially in jeopardy from the ‘hundreds of thousands’ of small pieces of debris travelling ‘exceptionally fast’.
Giving evidence to the Commons Defence Committee, he said the space community had been ‘shocked’ by the ‘recklessness’ of Russia in test firing a missile to destroy a defunct satellite creating huge amounts of additional debris.
‘It is in an area where it will impact for a number of years, various different orbits and also launch capabilities,’ he said.
Read more at https://metro.co.uk/2021/12/15/tim-peake-space-debris-poses-catastrophic-risk-to-the-iss-15775432/?ito=flipboard