International Space Station takes evasive action to avoid debris DPA April 24, 2022

[Elderberry]

RawStory 4/24/2022

The International Space Station (ISS) was forced to undertake an unplanned evasive manoeuvre on Saturday to avoid colliding with space debris.

The engines of the spaceship Progress MS-18 were turned on for 10 minutes, accelerating the ISS and lifting it 1.8 kilometres, according to Russian space agency Roscosmos. The Progress MS-18, which is used to resupply the ISS, is currently docked at the station.

The ISS is now flying at a height of 414 kilometres above the Earth after successfully completing the manoeuvre, Roscosmos said on Telegram. The maximum height the space station is permitted to orbit the Earth is just over 438 kilometres.

More: https://www.rawstory.com/international-space-station-takes-evasive-action-to-avoid-debris/

[Elderberry]

The Space Station Has to Swerve to Avoid Debris from Satellite Russia Blew Up

https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-station-russia-debris

Russia is menacing Earth and the ISS.

Space vacations may not be as fun as we thought. Imagine being the first space tourist to land on the International Space Station only to get stuck for days and then narrowly avoid colliding with a piece of satellite Russia blew up — scary.

Yet that’s exactly what’s happening to several crew members, because CBS space news reporter William Harwood broke the news yesterday that the ISS required a “reboost maneuver” Saturday morning.

“The ISS astronauts were told this afternoon a reboost maneuver is being planned for Saturday morning to A) improve downstream trajectory planning and B) to avoid a possible close encounter with a piece of debris from the Russian ASAT,” Harwood said online.

Considering how many times the undocking has been pushed back it’s hard to say when the tourist crew will get to return to Earth, but at least the current threat of collision with Russian space junk is over for now. Harwood did say, however, that debris trajectories will still be monitored for a while.

Continued caution is smart given that Russia has threatened to smash the US with plummeting space junk before — and that’s in addition to the escalating violence in Ukraine as President Vladimir Putin continues his invasion.

It seems Russia is equally unwilling to collaborate both on and off Earth.