active communications satellite

Back in 2009 a smashup between an active communications satellite and the long-dead Russian Cosmos 2251 satellite created nearly 2,000 pieces of space junk, most of which still orbits our planet today.

The threat was starkly demonstrated in 2009 when an active communications satellite operated by the US company Iridium and a defunct Soviet-era military communications satellite were obliterated when they collided in orbit.

If that happened, the collision could have produced thousands of pieces of space debris, the most since an active communications satellite operated by Iridium and a dead Russian satellite crashed into each other in 2009 some 500 miles over Siberia.