Sydney, Mar 26 (ANI): Six International Space Station (ISS) astronauts rushed to safety on Saturday as a piece of a Russian satellite whizzed by, which is the latest episode spotlighting the growing amount of space debris encircling the planet.
The astronauts orbiting 320 km above the planet were stirred from their slumber to jump into emergency escape pods, the Sydney Morning Herald reported.
The crew, which consisted of three Russians, two Americans and a Dutch astronaut, climbed into the two spacecraft as the debris passed within about nine miles of the space station, at 2:38 a.m. Eastern time.
Soon afterward, NASA officials allowed the astronauts to return to the station.
"Nichevo", or nothing, one Russian astronaut was heard saying in NASA's live online broadcast.
According to NASA, it did not notice the debris until Friday, too little time to put more distance between the station and the trajectory of the debris.
While NASA expected the debris to pass by safely, the six astronauts - Anton Shkaplerov, Anatoly Ivanishin and Oleg Kononenko of Russia, Donald R. Pettit and Daniel C. Burbank of the United States, and Andre Kuipers of the Netherlands, were ordered into the Russian Soyuz spacecraft.
NASA said it could not determine the size of the debris. Even small amounts of debris, however, can pose a danger to the 450-tonne space station, the space station and the satellite debris were travelling at speeds of 28,000km an hour. (ANI)
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