NASA: Decommissioned Russian Satellite Breaks Up in Space, Posing Threat to International Space Station
NASA has ordered crews aboard the space station to take refuge in their spacecraft as a standard precaution after it became known that a satellite had fallen at an altitude close to the station's altitude.
The US Space Force Command noted that it was the Russian Resurs-P1 Earth observation satellite, which was decommissioned in 2022 and disintegrated into "more than 100 traceable elements".
It added that there was no immediate threat from the incident, but that the debris would continue to be monitored.
Mission Control continued to monitor the trajectory of the debris, and after about an hour, the crew was allowed to abandon ship and the station resumed normal operations.
"Mission control continued to monitor the debris's path, and after about an hour, the crew was allowed to exit their spacecraft and the station resumed normal operations," the agency wrote.
There are currently three spacecraft docked to the ISS: SpaceX's Crew Dragon, Russia's Soyuz capsule and the Boeing Starliner, which is making its first visit.
After a leak and other problems, the Starliner extended its stay on the ISS much longer than expected.
Over the years, the space station has suffered minor damage from debris, but the astronauts have not been endangered. However, space debris has become a growing concern as the number of satellites and satellite fragments has increased dramatically over the past decade.
