Issue 80

08 Flash Archive · Members Only

Another Orbital Collision

Author Greg Gillinger Published July 29, 2025

30 Aug 2023: A three-decade-old Soviet satellite has disintegrated in orbit some 1,400 kilometers above Earth, likely following a space debris strike. The disintegration of the satellite, either the Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145 spacecraft, highlights the precarious situation in Earth’s orbit where old objects accumulated throughout the more than 60 years of space exploration and utilization are now posing threats to new, still functioning satellites.

– Per Johnathan McDowell, “7 debris objects cataloged from a defunct Soviet communications satellite launched in 1991…Debris appears to be from either Kosmos-2143 or Kosmos-2145, two of 8 Strela-1M sats launched on the same rocket.” (Editor’s note: believe Kosmos-2143 was a Strela 3).

-As of 2 Sep 2023, the publicly available space catalog has 1 object associated with Kosmos-2143 and 7 new objects listed as Kosmos-2143 debris. (Nice work 18 SDS!)

-There was no immediate change to Kosmos-2143’s orbit. It is currently cataloged with an apogee of 1413.7kms, perigee of 1394.8kms and an inclination of 82.6 deg.

-Apogee values for Kosmos-2143 debris ranges from 1643.2 – 1391.6kms. Perigee values range from 1348.4-1394.8kms. At these values the debris will remain on orbit for decades.

–Old Soviet satellites and used rocket stages left at altitudes above 500 miles (800 km) are of great concern to space sustainability researchers. Floating too high to be taken down by the natural decay of their orbits caused by the drag of Earth‘s residual atmosphere, these objects have already been involved in several incidents.

-Researchers don’t know and will likely never learn what caused the Kosmos-2143 fragmentation. Earth-based radars only track objects larger than 4 inches (10 centimeters). About 34,550 such objects are currently known to exist in Earth’s orbits, according to the European Space Agency (ESA).

Researchers have been sounding alarm bells for years because of the growing amounts of space junk in Earth’s orbit. Some fear the situation is slowly approaching a scenario known as the Kessler Syndrome. Named after retired NASA physicist Donald Kessler, the scenario predicts that the growing number of fragments generated by orbital collisions will eventually make the area around Earth unusable as every space debris crash will trigger a chain of subsequent collisions.

Issue 80

Kosmos-2143 debris objects cataloged after the orbital fragmentation

Kosmos-2143 orbital history showing no obvious collision signature

Illustration of a Strela-3 communications satellite