A U.S. Iridium satellite collided with a Russian military satellite on Tuesday, a commander of the Russian Space Forces confirmed Thursday.

The U.S. Iridium 33 satellite collided with Russia's Cosmos 2251 satellite at an altitude of 800 km at 19:56 Moscow time (1656GMT) on Tuesday, Alexander Yakushin, first deputy commander of the space forces, was quoted by the Itar-Tass news agency as saying.

The Cosmos 2251 satellite was launched in 1993 and has stopped functioning since 1995, he said.

The space forces' cosmic space monitoring equipment is following the debris produced by the collision at altitudes of 500 km to 1,300 km, the official said.

"The data on the debris amount is being specified," Yakushin said.

Earlier in the day, Russian Federal Space Agency (Roscosmos) confirmed the collision.

"It is quite likely that the satellites could have collided, as their orbits were very close to each other," Roscosmos press secretary Alexander Vorobyov said in an interview with Russian TV station.

Based on the current circumstances, the debris generated in the collision does not pose a threat to the international space station (ISS), he said, adding Russia will continue its probe into the incident for more details.

Vorobyov was echoed by Roscosmos' press officer Nasyrov Demyan in a telephone interview with Xinhua.

The ISS is operating well and Roscosmos is collecting and processing relevant data, Valery Lyndin, spokesman for the agency's flight control center, told Xinhua.

A Russian satellite and a privately owned U.S. communications satellite collided in space at 11:55 a.m. EST (1655 GMT) Tuesday, shooting out a pair of massive debris clouds, U.S. space agency NASA has said.

NASA believes that the risk to the ISS caused by a collision of two satellites is low, news agencies reported.

The conclusion of low risk was drawn on the fact that the space station flies at a lower altitude than that of the satellites, and that the space station flies at a lower orbit than the collision course.

The collision occurred at roughly 800 km, an altitude used by satellites that monitor weather and carry telephone communications among other things.

Source:Xinhua