Russian Mission Control has dismissed NASA's prediction that the three astronauts onboard the International Space Station (ISS) may need to take shelter inside Russian space capsules on Wednesday morning due to a piece of a defunct Chinese weather satellite flying past.
NASA expected that the 10-cm (4-inch) piece of space junk would fly perilously close to the ISS, saying the object may come within 850 meters (2,800 ft) of the space station.
“There is no threat of collision between the ISS and the piece of satellite, the crewmembers will not need to take shelter in the Soyuz [space capsule] because the debris will pass by at 170 kilometers from the station,” a spokesman for the Russian Mission Control said.
In January 2007, China used a land-based missile to destroy its 2,200-pound weather satellite, leaving more than 150,000 pieces of debris orbiting above Earth, NASA estimated.
The ISS has had several close calls with space debris, but crewmembers have taken shelter in the Soyuz vehicles only twice during the 11 years of continual human presence on the station.
In March 2009, a chunk of metal (a satellite rocket motor used on an earlier space mission), passed within 5 kilimeters of the station, prompting the three-member crew into the Soyuz return ship for about 10 minutes, NASA said.
In June 2011, an object came about 300 meters from the station and prompted the six astronauts on board to take shelter inside two Soyuz capsules.
