You might think the International Space Station, or the ISS, is too big to pull off daring nimble maneuvers to just barely avoid oncoming disaster, but you’d be wrong. The giant space-faring research station recently conducted an evasive maneuver to protect itself from rapidly approaching space debris.
This past Tuesday, November 19, NASA, in collaboration with the Russian space agency Roscosmos, fired the ISS’s thrusters for 5 minutes and 31 seconds to adjust its orbit, giving it some distance from debris floating around in space left over from a meteorological satellite that broke up back in 2015.
Before I tell you how close the debris was to hitting the ISS, you first have to understand that space is so vast that the perspectives on these kinds of things can be a little skewed if you only think of them in earthly terms. So, when I tell you that without this maneuver the debris still probably wouldn’t have hit the ISS but it would’ve come within 2.5 miles of the station, you have to understand that in space terms that’s feeling the breeze of the bullet that whizzes by your head.
Space junk isn’t like the chunk of blown-out tire you have to avoid on the highway. Space debris isn’t stationary, waiting for you to move around it. It’s in Earth’s orbit and it’s moving very quickly. A small chunk of metal moving at thousands of miles an hour could tear through the ISS and cause a massive disaster.
Unfortunately, space debris is becoming an all too common problem thanks to all the junk we’ve thrown up there over the years. Several nations, big and small, along with dozens of major corporations have tossed satellites up there. A lot of them are still functioning and we rely on them every day. But there are a ton of others that are just junk floating around waiting to destroy something.
NASA estimates that there are around 19,000 pieces of space debris in Earth’s orbit, totaling around 17.6 million pounds of debris all moving at something like 18,000 miles an hour. Space is already a hostile environment and we’ve only made it worse for ourselves. Thankfully, NASA’s daring maneuver didn’t disrupt any of its normal operations and will not affect any of its upcoming missions.
The post International Space Station is Dodging Space Debris Like Neo Dodged Bullets appeared first on VICE.
The post International Space Station is Dodging Space Debris Like Neo Dodged Bullets appeared first on VICE.
