The International Space Station had to make way for scrap from a Soviet satellite destroyed by the Russians seven months ago on Thursday evening. This was reported by the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Dmitri Rogozin, on Telegram.
At 21:03 Belgian time, the engines of the Russian cargo Progress MS-20 hanging from the spacemeccano started to change the course of the colossus. The propulsion worked for 275 seconds and the orbit of the ISS rose 890 meters. The correction was necessary because a dangerous situation could arise at 23.50 Belgian time because space debris could reach 285 meters.
It was debris from the Kosmos-1408 satellite. On November 15, 2021, the Russian army shot down that satellite during a test with an anti-satellite weapon. Then there was sharp protest from the US because the scrap could endanger the space station ISS. On a first approach, the crew members had to put on their spacesuits and settle into their rescue pod.
The Russian military saw no threat to the ISS in the test. The spy satellite Kosmos-1408 was launched in 1982. Three Russians, three Americans and an Italian astronaut from the European Space Agency (ESA) currently live and work on the ISS.
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