More data sharing urged to avoid satellite crashes

By Andrea Shalal-Esa

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Tuesday's collision of two satellites in space may not be the last unless big changes are made in the way government and commercial satellite operators share data, an expert on satellite orbits warned on Friday.

"Just because it took 50 years for it to happen doesn't mean it's going to be 50 years before the next one," said retired U.S. Air Force Colonel T.S. Kelso, who was the first director of the Air Force Space Command Space Analysis Centre and is advising Iridium Satellite LLC, whose communications satellite was destroyed in the crash.

Kelso runs a website dedicated to tracking satellites and debris for the private Centre for Space Standards & Innovation and has developed a sophisticated computer program that provides regular information when satellites are going to be passing close by each other or space debris.

The model projected 151 other objects had been more likely to collide on Tuesday than the defunct Russian military satellite and the Iridium satellite, Kelso said. The closest approach was expected to be about 74 metres (243 feet) between another Russian satellite and debris from a second Russian satellite.

Iridium 33, the satellite that crashed, was due to pass within 527 metres (1,729 feet) of another object, even closer than the projected pass by the Russian satellite, Kelso said.

"The process is only as good as the data. If we don't all share the best data we have, we're going to have more collisions," said Kelso, who added he had been urging the Air Force for years to adopt use of the computer-based system and disclose fully all its orbital data.

He said U.S. officials needed to work more closely with commercial and civilian satellite operators and share data to avert future collisions. "There's absolutely no reason for anybody to be withholding data that could have been used to avoid collisions like the one on Tuesday."

The U.S. Defence Department has said it did not predict the collision and Iridium has said it had no warning before the collision, which created two big clouds of debris, containing at least 500 to 600 identifiable pieces. Continued...