Khushwant Toor writes from Toronto

ON February 10, 2009, in one of the first every incident of its kind, a Russian military communications satellite and a U.S. communications satellite collided in Earth orbit. The extraordinary crash of two intact spacecraft has left two massive clouds of debris in low Earth orbit.

NASA reported that Russian satellite Kosmos 2251 crashed into the U.S. satellite Iridium 33 on Tuesday, February 10, approximately 790 kilometers above Siberia. The resulting clouds of debris contain more than 500 fragments. In a news briefing after the crash a NASA spokesperson told journalists it will take weeks to determine the full extent of the situation.

Iridium 33 was an operational U.S. communications satellite that is part of the Iridium global mobile communications system owned by an association of companies and other agencies headed by the U.S. Company Motorola. It was launched into low Earth orbit on September 14, 1997. Whereas, Kosmos-2251, launched on June 16, 1993, was a retired Russian military communications satellite. Iridium communications systems has 66 communications satellites.

The resulting debris from the crash could pose threat to space activities for many years to come. NASA rules out any potential damage to the International Space Station as it orbits only about 345 kilometers above earth, which is far below the point of collision.

However, NASA's Hubble Space Telescope and Earth observation satellites which travel at higher orbits closer to the accident site could be in danger of being hit by the crash debris. About 20 of the "NASA's Earth-observing satellites orbit at an altitude of approximately 707 kilometers, which is not far from the 790 kilometer altitude of the collision.

A 2008 report by the international monitoring group Space Security Index found that about 300,000 objects measuring between 1 and 10 centimeters in diameter and "billions" of smaller pieces orbit the Earth. Some of these objects travel at speeds which reach many thousands of kilometers per hour. While travelling at such a high speed even the smallest debris can damage or destroy a spacecraft.

In June 1983, the windscreen of the US space shuttle Challenger had to be replaced after it was chipped by a fleck of paint measuring 0.3 millimeters that impacted at 14400 kilometers per hour speed.

Since Soviet Union launched the first man-made orbiter, Sputnik 1, in 1957, some 6,000 satellites have been sent into space around the world. Out of which only about 800 satellites remain in operation, according to US Strategic Command (STRATCOM), whose Joint Space Operations Center tracks over 18,000 man-made objects orbiting the Earth.

After the crash the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) called all member states and international organizations to fully implement measures to curb space debris.
UN space debris mitigation guidelines call, among other things, for limiting the long-term presence of spacecraft and launch vehicles in low-Earth orbit (LEO), up to some 1,600 kilometers above Earth's surface, after the end of their mission. Such craft should be removed from orbit in a controlled fashion. If this is not possible, they should be disposed of in orbits that avoid their long-term presence in the LEO region.

"We knew this was going to happen eventually," said Mark Matney, an orbital debris scientist at NASA's Johnson Space Center in Houston.

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Briliant debut of music directors Shanker and Jaikishan

Harjap Singh Aujla

LATE Raj Kapoor was the biggest showman of India during his era. But built to a king’s size and standing six feet tall, his illustrious father Prithvi Raj Kapoor was a larger than life character, which could dwarf any individual. It was difficult for young Raj Kapoor to grow professionally from under his father’s shadow. But Raj Kapoor was a fiercely independent man. As a producer actor he had an average debut in film “Aag”. Its music was scored by a relatively lesser known composer Ram Ganguli, who was not a person that could catapult Raj Kapoor into name and fame. This film’s music received an average response from the public and on the box office also it was not a runaway hit, but Raj Kapoor had grand dreams. He was determined to achieve something spectacular. Raj Kapoor knew it very well that the music could make or break an Indian movie during those days.

Bombay, of the forties, could boast of a fine and long lineup of highly professional music directors. On merit Anil Biswas was way ahead of the pack. Other famous contemporaries included R.C. Boral, Khem Chand Prakash, Dutta Korgaonkar, Timir Baran, Shyam Sunder, Naushad, Husnalal Bhagatram, Sajjad etc.

Raj Kapoor wanted a maverick music director for his second and more ambitious venture “Barsaat”. Somehow he picked up the hitherto untried duo of Shanker and Jaikishan. This duo hailed from the Bombay Presidency, which included most of Gujarat and Maharashtra. Shanker was originally groomed as a wrestler, but he had great affinity with music. Shanker had spent some time as an assistant to Husnalal Bhagatram. Jaikishan was a more urbane individual. He was a highly romantic and delicate personality, who was a great connoisseur of beauty of all kinds. Music came naturally to Jaikishan. Raj Kapoor was inclined to put trust in this untried duo. In fact his father had seen their work and had liked it.

After getting the contract for composing the music for Barsaat, Shanker and Jaikishan got down seriously to create a kind of music, who’s memory will linger for a long time. They knew that Raj Kapoor was a Punjabi by ancestry and by culture, who also had an ear for good quality music. Shanker Jaikishan had a good knowledge of the kind of music till then composed by leading Punjabi music directors Husnalal Bhagatram, Shyam Sunder, Vinod, Hans Raj Behl and Khurshid Anwar. They originally tried to copy the style of Husnalal Bhagat Ram’s music. That duo was at the peak of their professional success during 1949 and 50. Shanker Jaikishan did not want to lose touch with the sweet melodies of Anil Biswas too. So in their initial work they got inspiration from the stalwarts Anil Biswas and Husnalal Bhagatram.

The song “Jiya beqarar hai, chhai bahaar hai, aja more baalma, tera intizaar hai” is derived directly from the book of Husnalal Bhagatram. Jaikishan was very good at judging the mood of the listener and his uncommon foresight led him to repose full confidence in a relatively new voice of Lata Mangeshkar for almost all the songs for his bebut masterpiece “Barsaat”. I met Jaikishan in December 1969 in famous Film Centre at Tardeo in Bombay. Before that I met him briefly at Gaylord Restaurant near Brabourne Stadium. He was a great maestro and I was his fan. We had a common chemistry that led to a good heart to heart talk.

Jaikishan told me that technically the finest actress of the time was Nargis. She was an embodiment of sophistication and her delivery of Hindustani language was almost perfect. The other top actress, of course more popular one, was Madhubala. Lata’s sweet shrill voice suited both. Lata’s tonal quality also perfectly suited Nutan, Nimmi, Bina Rai and others contemporaries and she was capable of reproducing exactly what the music director wanted.

Jaikishan did not want to take big risks, so he put all his eggs in the basket of the newly discovered singing sensation Lata Mangeshkar and succeeded immensely with this frail looking young lady as his female playback singer. Among male playback figures, he had no preferences. Raj Kapoor liked Mukesh, who’s voice was very romantic, but some other producers liked another romantic singer Talat Mahmood. Mohammad Rafi however, was the choice of most actors. Shanker Jaikishan in initial years used all three voices plus Manna Dey’s.

Shanker Jaikishan’s brilliant debut in Nargis Raj Kapoor starrer “Barsaat” (1949-50) opened the flood gates for obtaining contracts to compose the music for scores of highly melodious musicals such as Nagina, Awaara, Kalighata, Daag, Parvat, Aurat, Naya Ghar and Basant Bahar within a span of four years.

After 1952, the duo of Shanker and Jaikishan never looked back and came to be recognized as the most successful music directors of the next one and a half decades. According to Jaikishan, his finest and most artistic works included the music composed for film Patrani (1956), but the film failed at the box-office and its music also sank with the film. He however admitted that he got more success with some of his mediocre works, which he refused to divulge. Later on Lakshmi Kant Prare Lal attained the crown of becoming the leading music directors of Hindi cinema during the seventies and gave numerous unforgettable hits.

[harjapaujla@gmail.com]

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