BACK
An Unidentified Object Was Flying Just 28 Miles From SpaceX's Spacecraft
interestingengineering.com

An Unidentified Object Was Flying Just 28 Miles From SpaceX's Spacecraft

SpaceX's Dragon craft, and her crew, barely escaped collision with an, as yet, unidentified object. The crew is safe.

Science & Tech

During the recent successful launch of SpaceX's Dragon spacecraft, the crew had a close run-in with an unidentified object. While en route to the International Space Station at around 13:30 EST, the object, as yet unknown at the time of writing, came within a cat's whisker of the craft (on the scale of the universe).

Initially believed to be an immediate threat to the crew and craft, the object was later determined to be around 28 miles (45 km) away at its closest point. Thankfully the Dragon spacecraft and the object passed each other safely, and the SpaceX craft is now safely on its way to its final destination.

“The NASA/SpaceX team was informed of the possible conjunction by US Space Command,” NASA spokesperson Kelly Humphries told Futurism. “The object being tracked is classified as ‘unknown.'”

Click to continue reading

According to Humphries, the threat was very real at the time, and with no time to plan and perform evasive maneuvers, the crew was ordered to put on their pressurized suits — just in case.

About 7 hours after its successful launch from pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, NASA mission control informed the crew that they had picked up a potential inbound object.

The crew, NASA's Shane Kimbrough, Megan McArthur, European Space Agency's (ESA) astronaut Thomas Pesquet, and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) astronaut Akihiko Hoshide are all on their way to perform various tasks about the ISS when they finally arrive.

This object, as believed at the time, was on a collision course with the Dragon, and suggested that the crew should take precautions ASAP.

Prior to this, the crew had removed their suits as they prepared to sleep at around 14:00 EST, as per the original flight schedule.

"For awareness, we have identified late-breaking possible conjunction with a fairly close miss distance to Dragon. As such, we do need you to immediately proceed with suit donning, securing yourself in seats. We will be erring on the side of caution to get you guys in a better configuration. The time of closest approach for this event is at 13:43[EST], " SpaceX's crew operations resource engineer Sara Gillis told the crew.

It was a close-run thing, but all is well

The Dragon craft is designed to be fully autonomous, but the crew can take manual control if needed. Thankfully this was not needed during the recent near-miss.

By around 13:42 EST, the crew had successfully put on their suits, secured themselves in their seats, and pressurized them. Around 20 seconds, give or take, before the estimated closest approach of the object, Gillis reassured the crew that the object actually appears to be further away than initially suspected.

She did, however, tell them to keep their suits on — just in case. Thankfully for all involved, the object passed by safely.

At present, the Dragon crew is expected to dock with the ISS, which is currently ongoing at the time of writing. After docking, the crew will enter the station roughly two hours later.

Just what this object was is still unknown, but intense investigations are currently ongoing to find out.