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Agencies

Astronauts on the International Space Station carried out an “avoidance manoeuvre” on Tuesday to ensure they would not be hit by a piece of debris, said US space agency Nasa, urging better management of objects in Earth’s orbit.
Russian and US flight controllers worked together during a two-and-a-half-minute operation to adjust the station’s orbit and move further away, avoiding collision.
The agency didn’t reveal the size of the debris. But Nasa said it passed within about 1.4km (nearly one mile) of the ISS.
That’s an extremely close shave for objects moving at more than 10 times faster than a speeding bullet.
The three crew members – two Russians and an American – relocated to be near their Soyuz spacecraft as the manoeuvre began so they could evacuate if necessary, Nasa said, adding that the precaution was taken “out of an abundance of caution”.
What was mysterious fireball streaking across the Florida sky?
The astronauts were able to return to their normal activities after the procedure, according to Nasa.
“Manoeuvre Burn complete. The astronauts are coming out of safe haven,” Nasa chief Jim Bridenstine said on Twitter.
The threatening scrap was actually a piece of a 2018 Japanese rocket, astronomer Jonathan McDowell said on Twitter. The rocket broke up into 77 different pieces last year.


The ISS usually orbits roughly 420km (260 miles) above the Earth, at a speed of about 28,000km/h (roughly 17,500mph).
This type of manoeuvre is necessary on a regular basis. Nasa said 25 such manoeuvres had occurred between 1999 and 2018.
Bridenstine wrote on Twitter that this was the third such manoeuvre on the ISS just this year.
Even small pieces of junk are a major threat; a hit by a 10cm sphere of aluminium would be akin to detonating 6kg of TNT, Nasa senior scientist Jack Bacon told Wired in 2010.
And in Earth’s orbit right now, millions of pieces of space junk are flying around at similar speeds, including more than 650,000 objects that are softball, to fingernail-sized.
‘Moby Dick style’: space junk gets harpooned like a whale in orbit clean-up test
That number is only expected to increase as the US and other nations enter a new era of commercial space travel and satellite use.
Of the nearly 10,000 satellites humans have put into orbit since the 1950s, about 70 per cent of them are destroyed, disabled, or dead, according to The New Yorker. Sometimes a dead satellite can collide with another dead satellite, or a functional one, generating enormous new clouds of debris.
Accidental or deliberate collisions, including anti-satellite missile launches by India in 2019 and China in 2007, can break objects apart even further and create added risk.
“Debris is getting worse! Time for Congress to provide @CommerceGov with the $15 mil requested by @POTUS for the Office of Space Commerce,” Bridenstine tweeted.
The Office of Space Commerce is a civilian organisation that supporters want to take over the surveillance of space junk, a job currently occupied by the military.
Last week the Russian space agency Roskomos said that there was an air leak on the ISS.
Additional reporting by Business Insider and Bloomberg


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Space

ISS moves to dodge space debris that passed within a mile

Running into orbital debris, or space junk, of even a few centimetres in diameter is potentially catastrophic to the International Space Station. File photo: Nasa

Japanese mission to clear ‘space junk’ from Earth’s orbit fails

The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency’s HTV6, an unmanned cargo spacecraft Kounotori, or stork in Japanese, being assembled at the Tanegashima Space Centre in Tanegashima island, Kagoshima prefecture. Photo: AFP

(FILES) This file handout from the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) taken on July 6, 2016 shows the HTV6, an unmanned cargo spacecraft, "Kounotori", or "stork" in Japanese, being assembled at the Tanegashima Space Center in Tanegashima island, Kagoshima prefecture. An experimental Japanese mission to clear 'space junk' or rubbish from the Earth's orbit has ended in failure, officials said on February 6, 2017, in an embarassment for Tokyo. / AFP PHOTO / JAXA / STR / RESTRICTED TO EDITORIAL USE - MANDATORY CREDIT "AFP PHOTO / JAXA" - NO MARKETING NO ADVERTISING CAMPAIGNS - DISTRIBUTED AS A SERVICE TO CLIENTS

China says space junk crashed in eastern province - possibly from failed Russian rocket

Photos: AFP

Chinese government technicians preparing to remove space debris that fell in Qiqihar, northeast China's Heilongjiang province. Photo: AFP

This picture taken today shows space debris that fell in Qiqihar, northeast China's Heilongjiang province. Photo: AFP

‘Moby Dick style’: space junk gets harpooned like a whale in orbit clean-up test

A harpoon from the RemoveDEBRIS spacecraft striking a square target. Photo: AP

A "space harpoon" designed to catch a defunct satellite the size of a double-decker bus has passed a crucial earthbound test.

The one-metre long metal device was fired at 55mph into a 3cm-thick satellite panel, successfully deploying four barbs to lock it in place.

ESA announced on 12 April 2012 that they lost contact with Envisat on Sunday, 8 April 2012, after 10 years of service, exceeding initially planned life span by 5 years. The spacecraft was still in a stable orbit, but attempts to contact it were unsuccessful. 
Space debris populations seen from outside geosynchronous orbit (GEO). Note the two primary debris fields, the ring of objects in GEO, and the cloud of objects in low earth orbit (LEO).
Given Envisat's orbit and its area-to-mass ratio, it will take about 150 years for the satellite to be gradually pulled into the EarthÕs atmosphere.[11] Envisat is currently orbiting in an environment where two catalogued objects can be expected to pass within about 200 m (660 ft) of it every year, which would likely trigger the need for a maneuver to avoid a possible collision.[12] A collision between a satellite the size of Envisat and an object as small as 10 kg could produce a very large cloud of debris, initiating a self-sustaining chain-react

What was that mysterious fireball streaking across the Florida sky? US scientist thinks it was Chinese space junk

A photograph of an usual light in the Florida sky taken at about 2.15am on Wednesday. Photo: Sandra Shaw via Twitter

News

World


Crew moved into Soyuz spacecraft until the station was out of danger
Object may have been a piece of a Japanese rocket that broke up last year



Nasa quickly shifted the position of the International Space Station to avoid a potentially catastrophic encounter.


ISS moves to dodge space debris that passed within a mile

.css-1mniedq{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;} Crew moved into Soyuz spacecraft until the station was out of danger Object may have been a piece of a Japanese rocket that broke up last year

Crew moved into Soyuz spacecraft until the station was out of danger

Object may have been a piece of a Japanese rocket that broke up last year