After China, Russia's Space Garbage Turns Threats To Seven Astronauts On The ISS

Space debris is again endangering the lives of astronauts on the ISS. (photo: doc. NASA)

JAKARTA - A total of seven astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) must fight with their lives from a deadly collision of space debris.

The space junk is claimed to have come from the wreckage of an old Russian satellite that was destroyed in an antisatellite weapons test, leaving astronauts looking for a way to escape aboard their transport ship as the station passed near an orbital debris field.

“This increases the risk for astronauts and cosmonauts on the ISS, as well as other human space activities, to be dangerous. That's reckless. It's irresponsible," State Department spokesman Ned Price said.

According to reports, the US Space Command began tracking space junk in the early hours of Monday morning local time. This situation saw the station pass through a field of debris every 90 minutes, forcing those on board to close and reopen several compartments throughout the day.

The Washington Post reports Tuesday, November 16, Mission Control at the ISS is asking them to close the hatch between the space station compartments again at a later date as a safety precaution.

At least 1,500 pieces of the destroyed satellite are large enough to appear on radar. But other debris is too small to track, but still poses a hazard to the space station and orbiting satellites.

"We will continue to make it clear that we will not tolerate this kind of incident. Russia's dangerous and irresponsible behavior jeopardizes the long-term sustainability of space," Price said.

Of the seven astronauts, four were from America, one was German and two were from Russia. They all had to stay alert for the next few days.

Meanwhile, via its Twitter account, the Russian Space Agency (Roscosmos) said that the astronauts were ordered to enter the capsule that was anchored on the day before the debris was identified (when similar incidents were repeated), if they had to escape quickly. Then, the crew must routinely carry out monitoring.

NASA and Roscosmos are known to frequently move the ISS to avoid incoming space debris. They also did so last week when the station was threatened by fragments of a Chinese satellite that was destroyed in a 2007 missile test.