Nearly 200 pieces of space junk from a Russian satellite forced seven astronauts aboard the International Space Station to briefly take shelter.
ADVERTISEMENTThe seven were ordered to stop working and “shelter in their respective spacecraft” on Wednesday, according to a post from the ISS.
NASA Mission Control said the heightened threat might continue for another couple of days and continue to interrupt the astronauts’ science research and other work.
Details on what caused the breakup of the Resurs-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite, which Russia declared non-operational in 2022, were not immediately available.
Large debris-generating events in orbit are rare but are becoming more worrying as space becomes crowded with satellite networks needed for everyday life on Earth.
The Russian space agency Roscosmos, which managed the satellite, did not respond to requests for comment nor mention the incident on its social media platforms.
The US Space Command, which is monitoring the debris swarm, stated that there is no immediate threat to other satellites.