Sci/Tech|April 20, 2009 7:31 am

NASA Reveals Space Junk Risk For Shuttle Atlantis Mission

NASA has come out and stated what the current risk is for the space shuttle Atlantis as it makes its way to the Hubble Space telescope...............Washington (dbTechno) – NASA has come out and stated what the current risk is for the space shuttle Atlantis as it makes its way to the Hubble Space telescope.

NASA stated that currently, there is a 1 in 221 chance that the Atlantis space shuttle will end up running into space junk.

NASA researchers have made it very clear that though the risk is not very high, it is high enough to be very cautious.

The issue is that currently, there is a great deal of space junk that surrounds the Hubble Space telescope, far more than surrounds the International Space Station.

There are systems that are being set up, such as the one by the European Space Agency, to help monitor space junk around the world.

The overall risk of impact is higher for a mission to Hubble than it is for the International Space Station.

If the risk was below 1 in 200, then a special executive decision would have to be made by NASA before the mission could move forward.

The initial risk when it was first announced was 1 in 185 that Atlantis would hit space junk.

We will have to wait and see as the May launch gets closer for Atlantis.


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