ESAs riskiest flyby – Solar Orbiter vs Earth debris

ESA - European Space Agency

We talk to Julia Schwartz and Klaus Merz, experts in flight dynamics and space debris, about Solar Orbiter's upcoming risky Earth flyby. On 27 Nov, it will pass almost as close as the International Space Station in one of the closest flybys on record, which will see the spacecraft pass through two regions of hazardous debris. Could Solar Orbiter swerve from collision, if needed? Has the recent 'fragmentation event' increased the risk?