Space Debris forces Discovery and ISS to reorient

On Sunday afternoon, a space junk forced Space Shuttle Discovery and the International Space Station (ISS) to reorient their path. NASA mission control ordered the astronauts to move out orbiting space complex after it found that an approaching chunk of a Chinese rocket.

Discovery Mission STS-119

The Discovery’s crew fired the thrusters to place the space shuttle in front of the space station. Discovery and the station will stay in this orientation for about three hours. Due to this, a natural drag of about a foot per second will lower the orbit very slightly over time, which is enough to avoid a collision with the orbiting space junk. The closest approach with the debris, which is estimated to be about four inches in diameter, was supposed to happen about two hours into a spacewalk planned for Monday.

Earlier this month, another space junk came too close to the International Space Station that it forced space station crew to take refuge inside the Russian Soyuz capsule. Luckily that space junk safely passed away and the crew returned to the station after spending 10 minutes in the emergency escape capsule.

Category: Space | Tags: Discovery, ISS, NASA, Space, Space Shuttle