Discovery Avoids Space junk
March 25th 2009 09:31
The U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) on Sunday issued hasty directions to the astronauts aboard the International Space Station and space shuttle Discovery to move out of the way of a 4-inch (10-centimeter) piece of space junk that is heading their way.
Discovery's pilots fired their ship's thrusters to avoid the junk, which is likely to head towards the Space station.
It's the third time in March that the space station was warned about impending space junk. On March 12, Astronauts aboard the space station took refuge in Russia's Soyuz capsule in case of a collision with a flying debris cloud. And last week, the space station almost had to dodge yet another piece of garbage.
Any potential strike on the space station or the shuttle can become a serious problem.
A piece of space junk no bigger than a thumbnail can penetrate a spacesuit of tear a hole in space vehicles.
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