ISS Avoids a Near Shave With Space Junk

The ESA's ATV supply ship last week boosted the space station to a higher orbit to avoid a potential collision.

As in the movie "Gravity," the International Space Station (ISS) recently faced a threat from deadly debris hurtling through space on a collision course with the orbiting laboratory. Unlike in the Hollywood version, the ISS was boosted out of harm's way thanks to a concerted effort by the five space agencies responsible for the space station.

On Oct. 27, ground stations which track space debris determined that a small piece of Russia's Cosmos-2251 satellite "around the size of a hand" was going to pass within 4 kilometers of the ISS in a matter of hours, or "too close for comfort," the European Space Agency (ESA) reported this week.

With six hours to spare before the potential impact, the five space agencies agreed to "an emergency maneuver" using the ESA's expendable Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) to lift the ISS to a higher orbit.

"The ATV Control Center team in Toulouse, France triggered a boost of 1.8 km/h, enough to raise the 420-ton Station by 1 km and out of harm's way," the ESA said.

Just a few years ago, with a collision threat that imminent, the six crew members aboard the ISS would have been preparing to evacuate the space station, per protocol. But in 2012, a new procedure was put in place to fire up one of Russia's Progress resupply capsules to move the space station to a different orbit with less than 24 hours warning, the ESA noted.

For last week's close call, however, no Progress spacecraft was docked with the ISS. Instead, the responsible space agencies opted to the ATV Georges Lematre, the first time the ESA's own supply craft has been tasked with such a maneuver. Unlike the reusable Progress and cargo pods built by NASA contractor SpaceX, the ESA's ATVs are designed to burn up in the atmosphere once they undock and depart from the ISS.

The Georges Lematre is in the process of delivering more than 14,500 pounds of supplies, fuel, and gases to the ISS and is set to depart in February, the ESA said.

Cosmos-2251 collided with another satellite in 2009 and broke apart, leaving bits of debris which, as "Gravity" fans know, can pose a grave danger to other orbiting objects, even when very small.

"Ground stations continuously track space junkleftover hardware from defunct satellitesfor potentially life-threatening collisions. A fleck of paint can cause major damage travelling at 28,800 km/h," the ESA noted.

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ISS Avoids a Near Shave With Space Junk