Abstract: Due to the threat of impact to spacecraft from space debris,the space debris in-suit detection system is required.For developing the detection system based on acoustic emission(AE) technique,means of failure mode identification by AE signals from hypervelocity impact on protection structure is necessary.AE waves were obtained with experiments of hypervelocity impact on single plate and numerical simulations and were analyzed in time domain and frequency domain.The results indicate that the main trough value increases linearly with the increase of impact velocity till the plate is penetrated.A threshold value that divides the penetration and cratering in the failure modes of plates can be defined on the ratio of high frequency component amplitude to low frequency one.A method was presented which identifies cratering mode of single-sheet plate and estimates the impact velocity and size of crater assuming certain diameter of projectile.