M
Mike Wehner
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- The International Space Station had to perform an avoidance maneuver to ensure it didn't collide with a piece of unidentified debris orbiting Earth.
- The crew took refuge in the Soyuz spacecraft as mission controllers used thrusters to push the space station on a safer course.
- Space debris is a growing problem and poses a serious threat to crewed missions.
You know that feeling when you're driving down the road and you see a piece of debris in your lane? You kind of freeze and try to figure out how you're going to avoid it without swerving onto the shoulder or into the neighboring lane. Well, the International Space Station just had that exact same experience, only it wasn't cruising down a country road, it was speeding around the Earth at nearly five miles per second.
As NASA reveals in a brief update posted to its website, the ISS was forced to perform a "space debris avoidance maneuver" to ensure that it wouldn't crash into a big chunk of... something that was floating around Earth. Nobody really knows what it was, but the space station managed to avoid it, and the crew is safe and sound.
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The International Space Station just dodged a collision with space junk originally appeared on BGR.com on Wed, 23 Sep 2020 at 11:43:13 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.
Via BRG - Boy Genius Report