S. Korean satellite almost slammed into U.S. satellite last year: officials

DAEJEON, Feb. 13 (Yonhap) -- A South Korean and a U.S. satellite nearly collided
in space last year, officials said Friday, slipping past just 431 meters apart --
approximately equivalent to a 10 centimeter gap between cars traveling at 100
kilometers per hour.

"Luckily, they missed each other, but we couldn't help feeling extremely tense,"
said an official at Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology (KAIST) in
Daejeon, about 125 kilometers south of Seoul.
According to the institute, a South Korean scientific satellite was traveling at
the altitude of 650 kilometers in orbit when it passed by a U.S. spy satellite on
Sept. 25.
U.S. authorities had instructed KAIST to readjust the course of its satellite to
avoid a potential crash, but it was impossible because the orbiter did not have a
necessary thruster.
The satellites were traveling 7 kilometers per hour, the KAIST official said,
adding the encounter pinned them against "very small chances of survival."
The revelation comes after U.S. officials said this week one of their satellites
crashed into a defunct Russian one in an unprecedented space collision, raising
concern over space traffic.
samkim@yna.co.kr
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