Satellite Ecuador collided with Soviet missile fragments

The Pegaso satellite - the first satellite built by Ecuador and recently put into orbit last April, collided with the remaining pieces of a Soviet-launched missile in space in 1985, but it did 'survived' after this collision.

Director of the Ecuadorian Civil Space Agency (Exa), Ronnie Nader, confirmed that the incident occurred on the morning of May 23, and said that the Pegaso continued broadcasting, but on the ground did not receive credit. signal, because after the incident on the satellite of the satellite is not directed towards the Earth.

Pegaso satellite before being put into orbit. (Source: Wikipedia)

He also said that because the Pegaso shell is made of solid material and the pieces of missiles are so small that the collision does not destroy the satellite. Exa hopes that after 3 months, the problem will be overcome.

An Argentinian satellite that was launched into orbit with Pegaso by Chinese boosters on April 26 was similarly affected.

Pegaso was launched into orbit from a Chinese space center. From May 16, Exa received a video signal from the satellite. So far satellite has sent Earth images of geographic regions in some South American countries like Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Venezuela.

This is a micro satellite, weighing only 1.2kg. The Pegaso 'twin' satellite, Krysaor, will be launched into orbit from a space center in Russia in August.

Exa and some private businesses have invested 80,000 USD to build these two satellites. For its part, the Ecuadorian government spent $ 700,000 to cover the cost of launching orbits, insurance, and other logistics costs.

The launch of Pegaso to orbit marked an important development in Ecuador's attempt to conquer space.