European satellite dodges potential collision with space debris at short notice

The European Space Agency's three-satellite Swarm mission recently dodged out of the way of a mystery piece of space debris spotted just hours before a potential collision.

Swarm, a mission dedicated to unravelling the mysteries of Earth's magnetic field, is made up of three satellites, A, B and C (also known as Alpha, Bravo and Charlie).

According to ESA, a small piece of space debris was detected hurtling towards Alpha at 16:00 CEST, on 30 June. The risk of impact was high enough that Alpha needed to get out of the way - fast.

"And worse, the alert meant that the Swarm team was now suddenly racing against two clocks. Another manoeuvre was planned for just a few hours after the potential collision and had to be cancelled to give Alpha enough time to duck out of the way of the debris. That manoeuvre was also very time sensitive and had to be entirely replanned, recalculated and carried out within a day," the agency said.

The Swarm team, together with the Flight Dynamics team at ESA's mission control, planned and carried out the evasive action in just four hours, and then replanned and carried out the other manoeuvre within 24 hours. The satellite is now safe from a collision with that piece of space junk.

What's worse than dealing with deadly #SpaceDebris and violent #SpaceWeather?Dealing with both at the same time!@esa_swarm has dodged a potential collision at short notice, right in the middle of its 10-week climb to escape the Sun's wrath:https://t.co/5Lyq7EAaw5🛰️⤴️☀️😡 pic.twitter.com/tzTMgfJJ8v

— ESA Operations (@esaoperations) July 14, 2022

Launched on 22 November 2013, ESA's Swarm satellite mission measures the magnetic signals that stem from Earth's core, as well as other signals that come from the crust, oceans, ionosphere and magnetosphere, leading to new insight into many natural processes.