Space Station buzzed by Russian satellite fragment

by Stevie Smith - Dec 2 2009, 09:59

As if life aboard the orbiting International Space Station (ISS) isn’t difficult and dangerous enough for its occupying astronauts, NASA has revealed that a whizzing fragment of manmade space junk almost made life considerably worse for the crew on Tuesday.

According to the U.S. space administration, the four-inch fragment came from a defunct Russian Cosmos satellite and passed within a kilometre of the $100 billion USD station.

Buzzed at around 13:19 EST (18:19 GMT), officials commented that the object appeared on NASA’s scopes somewhat abruptly and left the station without the necessary time to fire its thrusters and perform an evasive manoeuvre.

As the piece of hurtling space detritus closed on the current two-man crew aboard the scientific station, NASA warned U.S. Commander Jeffrey Williams and Russian flight engineer Maxim Suraev they may be forced to seek refuge in a docked Russian Soyuz spacecraft.

Space.com reports that Tuesday’s near miss ranks as the third time in less than a week that mission controllers have tracked potentially dangerous objects passing close to the orbiting outpost.

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