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The satellites Iridium 33 and Kosmos 2251 destroyed each other in the first accidental hypervelocity collision between two intact satellites in low Earth orbit.
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Iridium 33
Communications satellite operated by Iridium Communications
Iridium 33 was a communications satellite launched by Russia for Iridium Communications. It was launched into low Earth orbit from Site 81/23 at the Baikonur Cosmodrome at 01:36 UTC on 14 September 1997, by a Proton-K rocket with a Block DM2 upper stage. The launch was arranged…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Kosmos 2251
Defunct Russian military communications satellite, operational from 1993 to 1995
Kosmos-2251 was a Russian Strela-2M military communications satellite. It was launched into Low Earth orbit from Site 132/1 at the Plesetsk Cosmodrome at 04:17 UTC on 16 June 1993, by a Kosmos-3M carrier rocket. The Strela satellites had a lifespan of 5 years, and the Russian…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
2009 satellite collision
First hypervelocity spacecraft collision
On February 10, 2009, two communications satellites—the active commercial Iridium 33 and the derelict Russian military Kosmos 2251—accidentally collided at a speed of 11.7 km/s (26,000 mph) and an altitude of 789 kilometres (490 mi) above the Taymyr Peninsula in Siberia. It was…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Hypervelocity
Very high velocity
Hypervelocity is very high velocity, approximately over 3,000 meters per second. In particular, hypervelocity is velocity so high that the strength of materials upon impact is very small compared to inertial stresses. Thus, metals and fluids behave alike under hypervelocity…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)
Low Earth orbit
Orbit around Earth between 160 and 2000 km
A low Earth orbit (LEO) is an orbit around Earth with a period of 128 minutes or less and an eccentricity less than 0.25. Most of the artificial objects in outer space are in LEO, peaking in number at an altitude around 800 km (500 mi), while the farthest in LEO, before medium…Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA)