Unidentified space debris narrowly misses ISS
June 28th, 2011 - 10:19 pm ICT by IANSMoscow, June 28 (IANS) A piece of unidentified debris narrowly missed the International Space Station (ISS) Tuesday while the crew evacuated into two Soyuz spacecraft to avoid a possible collision, an official said.
Russian mission control centre spokesman Valery Lyndin said the ISS was informed too late about the dangerous approaching of the space debris.
“So, the six crew members took refuge in the Soyuz spaceships latched on the ISS,” Xinhua quoted Lyndin as telling Itar-Tass.
The piece of space junk missed the ISS by just 250 metres. The crew members later returned to their daily routine, the spokesman said.
There had been similar situations onboard the Mir orbiting station as well as on the ISS. The 18th ISS crew had the first-ever evacuation in March 2009 for fear of collision with space debris, Lyndin said.
Many debris, including satellites with expired lives, spent rocket stages, booster units and other fragments, are orbiting the earth.
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Tags: crew members, daily routine, fear, fragments, international space station, iss crew, itar tass, moscow, orbiting the earth, rocket stages, russian mission control, satellites, soyuz spacecraft, space debris, space junk, space station iss, spaceships, spokesman, valery, xinhua