NASA has named the most serious incident in space in five years. This is reported in the report of the Johnson Space Center, part of the US space agency, writes RIA Novosti.
We are talking about the explosion of the Russian upper stage “Fregat-SB” in May 2020. According to the 18th United States Air Force Outer Space Control Squadron, 65 debris formed in orbit following the incident. “Based on new data, this destruction was the most serious of its kind in the past five years,” the report said.
By early February 2021, American surveillance devices recorded 325 debris at altitudes between 100 and 6,000 kilometers, formed as a result of the explosion. Of these, 309 remained in space.
The explosion of the Fregat-SB tank in May was reported on Twitter by the 18th US Air Force Outer Space Control Squadron. According to open sources, the exploded dumped tank belonged to the upper stage of the Ukrainian Zenit-3SLBF medium-heavy rocket, which launched the Russian Spektr-R space telescope from the Baikonur cosmodrome in July 2011.
