ISS astronauts were ordered into the space version of an emergency lifeboat last Friday when Mission Control identified an old piece of a Russian communications satellite was projected to come close to the space station. Normal procedure calls for the ISS itself to take evasive maneuvers, but the threat was spotted too late in this case to plot a move.
The six ISS astronauts took cover in two docked Soyuz space capsules during the critical window in case escape was called for. Fortunately for the crew, the debris passed by an estimated six to nine miles from the space station without incident.
The debris was the result of the Russian Cosmos 2251 communications satellite crashing into U.S. satellite Iridium 33 in 2009, which created a massive cloud of space junk. Even though NASA and its international counterparts believed the space trash to be relatively small threat, because the exact size of the debris couldn’t be pinned down they took a conservative approach.
via DVICE
