Category Archives: Space Station

November 5, 2014

Image Caption: This image of the International Space Station with the docked Europe's ATV Johannes Kepler and Space Shuttle Endeavour was taken by ESA astronaut Paolo Nespoli from Soyuz TMA-20 following its undocking on 24 May 2011. Credit: ESA/NASA

Provided by the European Space Agency

The International Space Station was threatened by space debris last week but ESAs Automated Transfer Vehicle saved the day by firing its thrusters to push the orbital outpost and its six occupants out of harms way.

This is the first time the Stations international partners have avoided space debris with such urgency.

Ground stations continuously track space junk leftover hardware from defunct satellites for potentially life-threatening collisions. A fleck of paint can cause major damage traveling at 28 800 km/h. When they raise the alarm, ground teams can move the Station to a safer orbit.

The calculations sometimes take hours this is rocket science but fortunately, most of the time, the radar network gives ample warning. Sometimes a dangerous object can slip through the net or its erratic behavior makes accurate predictions difficult.

This is where Europes ATV Georges Lematre came in on October27 . A piece of Russias Cosmos-2251 satellite that broke up after colliding with another satellite in 2009 was on a collision course with the International Space Station. The object was around the size of a hand and calculations showed it would pass within 4 km too close for comfort.

Just six hours before potential impact, the five space Station agencies agreed to an emergency maneuver. The ATV Control Centre team in Toulouse, France, triggered a boost of 1.8 km/h, enough to raise the 420-tonne Station by 1 km and out of harms way.

Hope for the best

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The International Space Station as seen by the departing STS-134 crew on May 29, 2011. Credit: NASA

A spacecraft attached to the International Space Station did an emergency maneuver to push the complex, which now houses six people, away from a threatening piece of space debris Oct. 27, the European Space Agency said in a statement.

A hand-sized shard of the Russian Cosmos-2251 satellite, which collided with a U.S. Iridium satellite in 2009, would have come within at least four kilometers (2.5 miles) of the orbiting outpost. This was close enough for the space station partners to agree to a move six hours before the potential impact.

This is the first time the stations international partners have avoided space debris with such urgency, the European Space Agency wrote. The push to a safer orbit took place using the agencys automated transfer vehicle Georges Lematre, which docked with the space station in August.

The International Space Station in October 2014, with the European automated transfer vehicle Georges Lematre attached. Credit: Alexander Gerst/ESA/NASA

While many collision threats are spotted at least days before impact, occasionally ground networks arent able to see a piece until 24 hours or less before the potential impact. Since 2012, the space station has normally done last-minute maneuvers using Russian cargo Progress vehicles, but this time around none were docked there. This is where the ATV came in.

Controllers at the ATV control center in France then did a four-minute preprogrammed move that raised the stations orbit by one kilometer (0.6 miles), enough to get out of the way.

The ATV is expected to remain at the station until February, when it will undock and burn up in the atmosphere. This is the last of the series of ATVs that Europe agreed to make as a part of its space station agreement.

Elizabeth Howell is the senior writer at Universe Today. She also works for Space.com, Space Exploration Network, the NASA Lunar Science Institute, NASA Astrobiology Magazine and LiveScience, among others. Career highlights include watching three shuttle launches, and going on a two-week simulated Mars expedition in rural Utah. You can follow her on Twitter @howellspace or contact her at her website.

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