Astronauts on the International SpaceCraft carried out an ‘avoidance maneuver’ to avoid a collision with a piece of Debris on September 22nd and relocated to be near their Soyuz Spacecraft to evacuate easily, if necessary.
All the precautions are already taken and Russian and US flight controllers worked together on an operation to adjust the station’s orbit and avoid the collision.
Controllers fired the thrusters for two and a half minutes about an hour before on a Progress spacecraft docked to the station that the closest approach to keep the station clear of the debris and urging better management of objects in Earth’s orbit. There are three crew members- an American and two Russians- in the spacecraft right now , is not in danger and they were able to return to their regular activities back after the procedure.
NASA chief Jim Bridenstine tweeted that ‘Maneuver Burn complete. The astronauts are coming out of safe haven’ This was the third such maneuver in this year and there have been 3 high concern potential conjunctions in 2 weeks. So, he advocated to provide more funding for the agency, which is directed to handle space traffic management.
The debris, the threatening piece was a piece of a 2018 Japanese rocket that broke up into 77 pieces last year. Even a small object could seriously damage the space station, the solar panel, or other facets of the station as the spacecraft usually orbits at a speed of about 17,000 miles/hour and 260 miles above Earth.
According to NASA, 25 such maneuvers had occurred already in the period of 19 years-1999 to 2018 as it is necessary on a regular basis.
The Earth’s orbit becomes littered with pieces of rockets, satellites, and other objects launched into space over the last sixty years, so the operations could become even more frequent.
Deliberate or accidental collisions, including anti-satellite missile launches by India in 2019 and China in 2007, can create added risk by breaking objects apart even further.
Photo credits – SpaceNews, Smithsonian magazine, Twitter
Information credits- NDTV , SpaceNews
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