Astronauts on board the International Space Station were roused from sleep last night and had to shelter in their spacecraft due to a threat from space debris.
NASA described the situation as a “standard precautionary measure,” and the crew has now resumed its normal operations. The cause of the debris was the breaking up of a satellite in orbit, which was at an altitude similar to the station.
Recommended Videos NASA did not specify exactly which satellite breakup had caused the threat, but according to space.com the culprit is thought to be an inactive Russian spacecraft called Resurs P1. According to U.S. Space Command, the satellite broke up yesterday and created over 100 pieces of debris.
Space junk is a growing problem, as objects such as non-functional satellites, rocket stages, and other pieces of debris are left in orbit. As these debris pieces are often moving at extremely high speeds relative to other objects, they can cause big problems if they impact each other. Impacts between objects create clouds of thousands of smaller debris pieces, with debris smeared across orbits.
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