It is getting more and more difficult to get out of the atmosphere of our planet, because of the space junk. From deteriorated satellites to rocket parts, there are tens of thousands of large and millions of small pieces floating around in our orbit like slate lead. According to the statement made by NASA, the International Space Station once again came face to face with this threat.
NASA had to delay the march of space junk astronauts!
NASA has decided to delay a spacewalk scheduled to take place outside the International Space Station, after hearing news of a potential safety threat from some nearby space debris earlier this morning. Where the debris came from is not yet known. But it’s only been two weeks since Russia blew up one of its orbiting satellites, creating thousands of dangerous fragments that threaten the space station.
Astronauts spacewalking outside the International Space Station
Astronauts Kayla Barron and Thomas Marshburn on the ISS were wearing spacesuits this morning to replace an antenna outside the station. This would be the fifth spacewalk for Marshburn and the first for Barron. However, before leaving the airlock, NASA personnel in mission control halted the spacewalk.
“It’s just real life, sometimes that’s the way things go and I’m really glad you guys are watching over our safety,” another astronaut on the ISS, Mark Vande Hei, told flight controllers on the task force. NASA, on the other hand, said that there was not enough time to assess the risk of the detected debris, so it postponed the mission until further notice.
Evade maneuvers for the International Space Station have become routine!
Space junk is disrupting International Space Station plans for the second time in the past two weeks. Earlier this month, it was predicted that the piece, which broke off from an old Chinese weather satellite and moved in orbit, would pass within a few hundred meters of the ISS. For this reason, an action called “space debris avoidance maneuver” was carried out to avoid collision.
A representative image of space junk found around Earth
The International Space Station has performed 29 avoidance maneuvers in the last 22 years, three of which are in 2020. The most recent one was made on September 22, 2020, as space junk belonging to a Japanese rocket would pass within about 1.4 kilometers. These numbers are expected to increase in the coming days. Therefore, the systems provide protection against dangers by constantly scanning the environment of the ISS.
On November 15, Russia blew up one of its satellites using a type of kinetic missile. According to the announced data, more than 1700 traceable and thousands of untraceable small space debris have been formed. As the blasted satellite orbited relatively close to the ISS, the debris cloud periodically passed close by. But the astronauts were woken early by mission controllers.
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