The astronauts may have been forced to evacuate

Nov 7, 2009 21:11 GMT  ·  By
The ISS, as viewed from the departing STS-128 assembly flight, carried out in August/September by the space shuttle Discovery
   The ISS, as viewed from the departing STS-128 assembly flight, carried out in August/September by the space shuttle Discovery

Late this Friday, a chunk of space debris whooshed passed the International Space Station (ISS) at very close distance, triggering concerns for the astronauts' safety. The piece of debris did not buzz past extremely close to the station, Mission Controllers report, otherwise the six members of the ISS crew may have had to board the Russian-built Soyuz capsules, which act like life boats while affixed to the station. The recent incident again draws attention to the growing problem of space debris in the Earth's orbit, which continues to increase with each successful rocket launch, Space reports.

Experts managing the ISS program said that, while the piece of junk moved very close to the orbital lab (some 1,640 feet, or 500 meters), the astronauts were awaken from their sleep as a precaution. They weren't in engine at any time, but Mission Control wanted to have them awake just in case. The debris was noticed too late to allow for the massive, football field-sized platform to be maneuvered out of the way. Usually, the Russian-built thrusters on the lab are used for this sort of moves.

“Sorry we had to do it that way, and we had to wake you up in the middle of the night,” the Russian Mission Control radioed the astronauts. The piece of junk moved past the station at 10:48 pm EST, on Friday (0348 GMT, on Saturday). “It's pretty unusual. I wouldn't be surprised if the need to do it for this [debris event] goes away,” the NAS deputy station program manager, Kirk Shireman, added on Friday. After experts analyzed the trajectory of the 2-inch (5-centimeter) space debris, they concluded that it was safe for the astronauts to go back to sleep.

“Good news. The tracking data has come through, and shown that the conjunction's no longer a threat to station,” the NASA Mission Control radioed to orbit. “I'll get around to all my crew members here, and we can go back to sleep. Thanks a lot for working all this tonight, Houston,” said Frank de Winne. He is the current Commander of Expedition 21 to the ISS, and the first astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA) to occupy the position. His predecessor was RosCosmos astronaut Gennady Padalka.