International Space Station forced to scramble out of way of deadly Russian debris

Debris from a Russian anti-satellite missile test in late 2021 is still imperiling the space station

((Photo by Paolo Nespoli - ESA/NASA via Getty Images))

The International Space Station has been forced to move out of the way of potentially lethal Russian debris.

The floating lab fired its thrusters for just over five minutes, so that it could be at a safe distance from a fragment of destroyed Russian spacecraft.

The fragments came from Cosmos 1408, Nasa said. That was an old satellite that was destroyed in a Russian weapons test in November last year – and pieces of which have since been flying around above the Earth, repeatedly putting missions at risk.

The space station fired its thrusters beginning at 8.25pm EDT, ultimately raising the station’s altitude by just over 1,000 feet. Without such a maneuver, it was estimated the piece of space debris could pass within three miles of the space station, according to a Nasa blog on the event.

It’s not entirely unusual for the space station to maneuver to avoid potentially hazardous space debris, and Nasa notes the station has dodged space junk more than 30 times since 1999.

But unlike common pieces of unintentional debris, such as the spent upper stages of rockets, the debris the space station dodged on Monday was created intentionally.

On or around 15 November, 2021, the Russian military tested an anti-satellite missile, or Asat, on Cosmos 1408, a defunct Soviet-era spy satellite. The destruction of the satellite created more than 1,500 new pieces of debris and forced the astronauts and Russian cosmonauts on the ISS to shelter in their docked spacecraft in case they had to evacuate the station.

The Asat test raised an international outcry of condemnation and sparked discussions at the United Nations of banning Asats and Asat tests. Nasa administrator Bill Nelson called the testt a “reckless,” “dangerous,” “destabilising” action.

The US committed to ending any future anti-satellite missile tests in April, and last used a missile to destroy a satellite in 2008.

Some experts worry that Asat use in warfare could hasten the onset of the so-called Kessler Syndrome, a runaway chain reaction where space debris destroys satellites, creating more debris, destroying more satellites. The end result of a Kessler Syndrome cascade would be orbital lanes so clogged with debris, that no one could launch anything into space for years, maybe even centuries, to come.

US Space Force officials believe that as of September, roughly two-thirds of the debris created by the Asat test had reentered the Earth’s atmosphere, according to reporting by Space News. But the material that remains in orbit continues to threaten other space vehicles, as Monday’s ISS maneuver illustrates.

It’s also not the first time the ISS has had to dodge Russian Asat test debris this year; the space station performed a similar maneuver in June.