The International Space Station had to fire up its engines to dodge Russian space debris. This was reported by NASA.
The space agency said the ISS turned on its engines for 5 minutes and 5 seconds to avoid a fragment of the Russian Kosmos-1408 satellite, which Russia destroyed during a weapons test last November. Without this maneuver, the debris could have passed about 5 km from the station.
CNN writes that the International Space Station was forced to make a similar maneuver in June to avoid debris. In January, a piece of debris came within range of a Chinese satellite, and the Chinese government called the collision "extremely dangerous." According to NASA, the ISS typically has to change its orbit to avoid space debris about once a year, maneuvering away from the object if the chance of a collision exceeds one in 10,000.
Invisible in the night sky, hundreds of millions of fragments revolve around our planet. This debris consists of parts of old satellites, as well as failed satellites and rocket hulls. According to a 2021 NASA report, at least 26,000 pieces of space debris orbiting Earth are softball-sized or larger—that is, large enough to destroy a satellite; more than 500,000 debris the size of a marble capable of damaging a spacecraft; and more than 100 million pieces the size of a grain of salt can pierce a space suit. When these fragments crash into each other, they can create even more small orbital debris.
- On November 15, 2021, the failed Cosmos 1408 satellite was destroyed, creating a debris cloud, including about 1,500 tracked pieces of space debris. At the time, the US Space Command said that Russia had tested an anti-satellite direct-launch missile and strongly condemned the anti-satellite test, calling it a "reckless and dangerous act."