Danish space scientists are holding their breath for the next few hours as they await a communications pass with their Ørsted satellite which is in the path of debris from a Russian satellite, according to Berlingske Tidende.

The Russian debris, from a collision a year ago between a Russian communications satellite and the American Iridium satellite, was due to come within 500 metres of the Ørsted at 10.49 CET, but communications with the Ørsted will not be possible before 14.00 CET.

Ørsted and the debris were due to meet some 700 km above the Beaufort Sea north of Alaska and Canada.

“We have planned a communications pass with the satellite at 2 p.m. If we don’t hear from it then, we can only hope that something else is wrong,” says Carsten Jørgensen of the Ørsted satellite group.