Nine astronauts aboard the International Space Station climbed into their respective spacecraft to take refuge from potential impacts with space debris after a dead Russian spacecraft was observed fragmenting in low Earth orbit.
LeoLabs, which monitors over 20,000 objects in orbit via a global radar network, first reported the breakup event.
“Early indications are that a non-operational Russian spacecraft, Resurs P1 (SATNO 39186), released a number of fragments between 13:05 UTC 26 June and 00:51 UTC 27 June,” the company wrote on X.com.
LeoLabs reported the object, which was a high-resolution Earth imaging satellite launched in 2013, weighed about 13,000 pounds and was orbiting above us at around 220 miles in altitude. This is roughly 30 miles below the typical orbit of the ISS.
That’s good news for the astronauts, because much of the cloud of debris is likely to be pulled down towards earth’s atmosphere by our planet’s gravity where it will eventually burn up without ever posing a real threat to the space station.
NASA said via X that the astronauts retreated to their spacecraft as “a standard precautionary measure.”
“Mission Control continued to monitor the path of the debris, and after about an hour, the crew was cleared to exit their spacecraft and the station resumed normal operations,” the agency wrote.
There are currently three spacecraft docked to the ISS: a SpaceX Crew Dragon, Russian Soyuz capsule and Boeing Starliner making its first visit. The Starliner has extended its stay much longer than expected after experiencing a leak and other issues.
The space station has suffered minor damage from debris over the years, but astronauts have yet to be injured. Space junk is a growing concern, however, as the amount of satellites and fragments of satellites have both grown dramatically in the past decade.
LeoLabs is continuing to monitor the cloud of debris for possible threats to other satellites. Most satellites in low-earth orbit circle the planet at higher altitudes.
