01/09/2016 (Agence Europe) – On Wednesday 31 August, the European Space Agency (ESA) announced that one of the Copernicus Sentinel-1A satellite’s solar panels had been hit by a millimetre-size particle in orbit on 23 August. The incident was discovered following a sudden loss of energy, as well as a slight change in the orientation of the satellite, which was picked up by one of the satellite’s on-board cameras. Holger Krag, the head of the ESA Space Debris Office, explained that this kind of event was not unexpected and pointed out that objects of less than 5 cm cannot be tracked. The agency, however, provided assurances that the impact had not had any repercussions on the satellite’s operations, and that the satellite was functioning normally. (PH)