Orbits around the earth seem to be getting crowded; well, the recent satellite collision that took place in the space indicates that. Yes, an unprecedented collision of commercial Iridium communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite occurred on Tuesday. The collision took place above northern Siberia.

On Wednesday, Bethesda, Maryland based Iridium stated that the collision has been confirmed and it has been verified by U.S. government organizations that track satellites and other orbits.

In a statement, Iridium stated that it had “lost an operational satellite” that collided with “a nonoperational” Russian satellite. Offering satellite telephone and data service to governments, corporations, media and other groups worldwide, the Iridium network includes 66 satellites orbiting approximately 800 kilometers above the Earth's surface.

NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Nicholas L. Johnson said, "They collided at an altitude of 790 kilometers (491 miles) over northern Siberia Tuesday about noon Washington time. The U.S. space surveillance network detected a large number of debris from both objects."

“This is a first, unfortunately,” Johnson said of the collision. “Nothing to this extent has ever happened before. We’ve had three other accidental collisions between what we call catalog objects, but they were all much smaller than this,” Johnson said. “The communication satellites were two relatively big objects,” he added.

The collision created a cloud of wreckage in the space. According to Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Carey, deputy director of global operations with U.S. Strategic Command, the agency responsible for space surveillance, the initial radar tracking detected some 600 pieces of debris.

According to NASA officials, the international space station appears to be safe from the debris, but it could pose risk for other military or civilian satellites. Johnson said, “There are actually debris from this event which we believe are going through space station altitude already. The risk to the station is going to be very, very small.” 

Mr. Johnson said the United States military’s tracking radars on work to figure out actual the number of detectable fragments. He said, “It’s going to take a while. It’s very, very difficult to discriminate all those objects when they’re really close together. And so over the next couple of days we’ll have a much better understanding.”