US satellite threatens other spacecraft, Russian scientists warn

A US satellite partially disintegrates in orbit, endangering other spacecraft circling the Earth, Russian scientists said on Saturday.
The craft in question is the US geostationary communications satellite Galaxy 11, operated by satellite services company Intelsat, according to the Keldysh Institute of Applied Mathematics of the Russian Academy of Sciences, based in Moscow. It had been launched in 1999 as a backup to the Intelsat 802 satellite.

Telescopes tracked several small fragments that broke off from Galaxy 11 and now pose a potential threat to other orbiting satellites, the scientists said.

The Keldysh Institute said the exact reasons for the spacecraft’s disintegration were currently unknown, but suggested it could be the result of aging of its thermal insulation, solar panels or other equipment.