ISS

The International Space Station (ISS) has been manoeuvred into a different orbit in order to avoid a possible collision with debris of a Japanese spacecraft, according to the Russian space programme’s Mission Control Centre.

A Mission Control Centre spokesperson said the Russian Zvevda module would release its booster rockets when carrying out the operation today at 3:22am GMT.

The space station performs debris avoidance manoeuvres only if the chance of a collision is greater than one in 100,000.

Debris from defunct Russian military satellite Kosmos 2251 came closer to ISS on 27 September, which was followed by a fragment of an Indian spacecraft the next day.

Space debris in orbit has been a growing threat for operational satellites and according to NASA, there are at least 21,000 known fragments, measuring more than 4in, drifting aimlessly in the space.

"The space station performs debris avoidance manoeuvres only if the chance of a collision is greater than one in 100,000."

ISS crew had to take shelter in the Soyuz capsule docked to the station twice in the past until space debris had passed.

Meanwhile, the European Automated Transfer Vehicle-3 (ATV-3), which completed its six months resupply and servicing mission to ISS, burned up over the South Pacific on Wednesday.

The spacecraft launched aboard an Ariane V rocket on 23 March and delivered 14,539lbs of cargo, which included fuel, oxygen, water, food, scientific equipment, accessories, consumables, parcels to the ISS crew.

Edoardo Amaldi ATV-3, named after an Italian cosmic-ray physicist, was the third of five ATVs that Europe sent on a cargo mission to the ISS.

The fourth cargo resupply mission, ATV-4 ‘Albert Einstein’, is expected to be launched on 17 April 2013 and the fifth mission, ‘Georges Lemaitre’, in April 2014.

Image: The Russian Zvevda module handled debris avoidance manoeuvre operation of ISS on 4 October 2012. Photo: courtesy of NASA.