A geometrical analysis of impacts on the ISS

We use Öpik's analytical expressions that relate in a simple way the semimajor axis, eccentricity and inclination of the projectile orbit to the magnitude and direction of the relative velocity vector at impact on a given target on circular orbit, and the CODRM-94 model of debris population, to find that the large majority of the debris population is on orbits such that a correlation exists between their impact velocity on the ISS and the angle between the velocity vector of the impactor and that of the ISS.