The incident is thought to have involved a 12-year-old satellite belonging to the US company Iridium and a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite that was put into orbit in 1993.

这起事故是关于美国铱公司12年前发射的一颗卫星，以及俄罗斯1993年发射的已经失效的宇宙卫星。

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Some of the blame can even be divvied up; last year an operational Iridium communications satellite collided with a spent Russian Cosmos spacecraft, spawning nearly 2,000 pieces of smaller debris.

其中有一部分责任甚至应当均摊，去年一颗运行中的铱星与一艘作废的俄罗斯宇宙飞行器相撞，增加了将近2000块小碎片。

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Industry officials say Iridium has identified the Russian craft as a Cosmos series satellite launched in 1993, weighing more than a ton and including an onboard nuclear reactor.

业内人士说，铱星公司已经确定俄罗斯的卫星是1993年发射“宇宙”系列卫星之一，重量超过一吨，卫星上装有一个核反应堆。

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"The Expedition 30 crew aboard the International Space Station received an 'all clear' to move out of their Soyuz vehicles after a small piece of a Russian Cosmos satellite debris passed by the complex without incident early Saturday, " the statement said.

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The last major space debris collision was in 2009 between Iridium 33, an operational U.S. communications satellite, and Cosmos 2251, a decommissioned Russian satellite, Kelso said.

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In February, the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe (Wmap) satellite took the most detailed picture yet of the cosmic microwave background - an image of the infant cosmos when it was less than 400, 000 years old.

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