The International Space Station changed course to avoid a collision with a piece of an old rocket.
A piece of that old rocket that broke apart two years after the United States launched it into Earth's orbit was on its way to the International Space Station. NASA and Russia's space agency decided they needed to move the space station after monitoring the chunk throughout Monday.
The debris was set to pass at 2:58 a.m. The engines of the Progress cargo ship were fired to push the International Space Station closer to Earth. The space station's altitude was lowered by about 1,000 feet after the engine burn because it was out of reach of the rocket chunk.
When objects are expected to pass close by, mission controllers move the International Space Station. The station had to change course twice this year in order to avoid debris, including once last month when Russia diverted the station away from a piece of junk. The laboratory had to dodge debris three times in 2020.
The International Space Station has moved to avoid space junk at least 30 times.
There was a space debris hit to the Space Shuttle. The entry hole is small. The exit hole is larger.
NASA.
NASA and Roscosmos have good reason to be cautious. A small piece of metal hitting the International Space Station could cause a hole in it, because it is 10 times the speed of a bullet.
There was damage to a robotic arm on the International Space Station.
The Canadian Space Agency is part of the NASA.
A hit by a 10-centimeter sphere of aluminum would be equivalent to detonating 15 pounds of TNT, according to NASA. Paint flecks have damaged windows.
A chip in the cupola window was photographed by Tim Peake.
NASA.
The problem of space junk gets worse each year as old satellites and rocket bodies fall apart, crashing into each other, or getting blown up in anti-satellite missile tests. Thousands of bits of debris can be generated by these events.
Every major space-faring nation has contributed to the problem by leaving old satellites in the air or launching missiles at them.
It has been a bad month in space.
The International Space Station will be manned by a Russian spaceship and module on September 15, 2021.
T. Pesquet is an employee of the NASA.
Friday's maneuver is not the first space-junk scare this week.
Two astronauts were supposed to be outside on a spacewalk to fix an antenna system when NASA decided to delay it. The spacewalk was re-scheduling because NASA didn't have time to assess the risk.
Russia blew up one of its old satellites with a missile two weeks ago, doubling the amount of debris near the International Space Station, according to a NASA official. NASA didn't rule out the possibility that Tuesday's debris came from Russia.
The dashboard shows more than 200 pieces of debris the company is tracking from Russia's anti-satellite missile test.
A company called LeoLabs.
Private companies have a problem with space junk. Musk said this week that his company changed the position of some of its satellites in order to avoid debris.
NASA isn't cleaning up space junk.
Nelson criticized Russia for its missile test on November 15.
The US has created thousands of bits of space debris, including the rocket chunk that menaced the International Space Station on Friday and the missile strike that destroyed an aging satellite in 2008. India and China have each blown up satellites in space.
US rocket parts and satellites from the '90s are still in the air. The NASA Office of the Inspector General found that NASA's effort to stop adding debris to Earth's orbit was not enough to prevent cascading collision in space. The agency's goal is to make sure that new rockets and satellites burn up in Earth's orbit once they're no longer usable.
The OIG said that NASA should focus on cleaning up space junk. The report states that the agency has made little or no progress on developing technology to remove debris.
The OIG said that NASA is contributing to the problem by leaving old rockets and satellites in space.
The report concluded that protecting the expanding space environment is critical. Billions of people rely on weather forecasting, telecommunications, and global positioning systems for their daily needs.
