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Published: 18:19, December 03, 2021 | Updated: 22:39, December 03, 2021
International Space Station swerves to dodge space junk
By Reuters
Published:18:19, December 03, 2021 Updated:22:39, December 03, 2021 By Reuters

This image made from NASA TV shows the international space station, seen from the SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, Apr 24, 2021. (FILE PHOTO / NASA VIA AP)

MOSCOW - The International Space Station performed a maneuver on Friday to temporarily swerve away from a fragment of a US launch vehicle, the head of Russia's space agency said.

Dmitry Rogozin, who heads Roscosmos, said the station's orbit dropped by 310 meters for less than three minutes to avoid a close encounter with a fragment from a US launch vehicle sent into space in 1994.

Space debris, or space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or parts of a spacecraft that float around in space and risk colliding with satellites or the International Space Station

Rogozin added that the maneuver would not affect the planned launch of the Soyuz MS-20 rocket on Dec 8 from the Baikonur cosmodrome in Kazakhstan and its docking at the ISS.

Space debris, or space junk, consists of discarded launch vehicles or parts of a spacecraft that float around in space and risk colliding with satellites or the International Space Station.

Space debris forced NASA on Tuesday to postpone a spacewalk placed to replace a faulty antenna at the ISS.

READ MORE: NASA, SpaceX send Crew-3 mission into orbit to ISS

US officials also said last month that an anti-satellite missile test carried out by Russia had generated a debris field in low-Earth orbit that endangered the ISS and would pose a hazard to space activities for years. 


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