Collision of Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251

Date: February 10, 2009 • Location: Rome, Italy

The satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 destroyed each other in the first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit.

Iridium 33 was a communications satellite launched by Russia for Iridium Communications. It was launched into low Earth orbit from Site 81/23 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 01:36 UTC on 14 September 1997, by a Proton-K rocket with a Block DM2 upper stage. The launch was arranged by International Launch Services (ILS). It was operated in Plane 3 of the Iridium satellite constellation, with an ascending node of 230.9°.