Space Station Steers Clear Of Debris From Defunct US Satellite

The International Space Station made an evasive maneuver today in a successful bid to avoid colliding with a piece of debris shed by a defunct U.S. atmospheric research satellite.

Thrusters on a Russian Progress resupply ship were fired for three minutes to steer the station clear of a fragment from NASA's Upper Atmospheric Research Satellite, which was launched on Discovery on Sept. 12, 1991, deployed from the shuttle's cargo bay three days later and operated in low Earth orbit for 14 years.

The burn is not expected to significantly change the precise time of Discovery's planned 4:40 p.m. launch next Monday on its final flight before shuttle fleet retirement -- a mission to haul the last pressurized American module to the International Space Station. The timing of the launch Wednesday and arrival Saturday of a new Progress cargo carrier should remain about the same, too.

Flight controllers in the Mission Control Center in Moscow executed the thruster firing. The latest tracking report prior to the burn showed the debris was expected to flight outside a hazard zone around the station. However, six previous tracking estimates showed it would fly inside the zone, so the burn was carried out as a precaution.

ABOUT THE IMAGE: Click to enlarge the NASA image of the International Space Station as seen from the flight deck of shuttle Atlantis during the STS-132 mission in May. Pilot Tony Antonelli was guiding the shuttle on a looping fly-around of the outpost before heading toward a May 26 landing at Kennedy Space Center. Photo credit: NASA/STS-132 Crew.