Space debris threatened International Space Station, astronauts temporarily evacuated

Thursday, March 12, 2009

The crew currently of the International Space Station (ISS) was briefly evacuated to the Russian Soyuz capsule in preparation for a possible impact with space debris.

In memos published by NASAspaceflight.com, the object was described as "elliptical with a low perigee". It was unclear what kind of damage the debris would have caused if it had collided with the ISS. "Tracking of the small piece of debris/MMOD (Micrometeoroid Orbital Debris) was initially classed as a low threat of collision with the ISS.

Universe Today reported the object as being large, while BNOnews said the object was small, about 0.009 meters.

At 12:34 EDT, "as a contingency, NASA’s Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke, Russian Flight Engineer Yury Lonchakov, and NASA’s Sandra Magnus were asked to 'evacuate' into the Russian Soyuz, which would serve as their means of departing from the Station - should it be required," added NASA.

Approximately 10 minutes later, after the threat had passed, the crew returned to its normal duties.

Have an opinion on this story? Share it!

Sources

"Tiny space debris causes ISS emergency measures" — BNOnews, March 12, 2009
"RED threshold late notice conjunction threat to ISS - Crew evac to Soyuz" — NASAspaceflight.com, March 12, 2009

External links

ISS Homepage Retrieved March 12, 2009; 3:57 p.m. (EDT)

Share this:

This page is archived, and is no longer publicly editable.

Articles presented on Wikinews reflect the specific time at which they were written and published, and do not attempt to encompass events or knowledge which occur or become known after their publication.

Got a correction? Add the template {{editprotected}} to the talk page along with your corrections, and it will be brought to the attention of the administrators.

Please note that due to our archival policy, we will not alter or update the content of articles that are archived, but will only accept requests to make grammatical and formatting corrections.

Note that some listed sources or external links may no longer be available online due to age.