Yesterday, at about noon EDT, a defunct Russian communications satellite and the active US Iridium 33 communications satellite collided over Siberia. Both satellites were destroyed and about 600 pieces of space junk have so far been identified. The space junk was injected into orbits extending out in all directions from the point of impact but most of it is believed to be in similar orbits to the two satellites. This means that there may be a risk of it colliding with other Iridium satellites. Some of the junk which was projected downward has or will pass through the plane of orbit if the ISS but there have not been any impacts on the station yet and NASA believes they can move the station if tracking indicates a potential collision. They say it will take several more days to get a complete picture of the debris field.
A search of the blog does not indicate that I have ever observed a flare from Iridium 33.
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