ISS Astronauts shelter in escape pods from space junk .

[Forgey (Paula)]

A discarded chunk of a Russian rocket is forcing six International Space Station astronauts to seek shelter in escape capsules.

NASA says the space junk will barely be close enough to be a threat, but if it hits the station it could be dangerous, so the astronauts - two Americans, three Russians and a Dutchman - are waking early to climb into two Soyuz vehicles, ready to rocket back to earth just in case.
The debris is supposed to come closest at 2.38am EDT (5.38pm AEDT today).
The space junk wasn't noticed until yesterday, too late to move the International Space Station out of the way.

Read more: http://www.news.com.au/breaking-news...#ixzz1q0eujMQt

[COSMOPARADISE (Nick)]

yeah not long now, 15min or so. the crew in respective soyuz craft.
Thanks for the heads up.
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/nasatv/

[COSMOPARADISE (Nick)]

...and... it's gone

[Shark Bait (Stu)]

I wonder how far away the debris was at closest approach?

Brilliant footage as the ISS moves to the dark side of Earth.

[Lester]

Glad all is okay up there. Pity my internet is tooooo slow to watch it.

Guess there will be more of this happening as the number of objects orbiting the Earth increases. Unfortunately.

[Forgey (Paula)]

This is from NASA:
https://www.facebook.com/NASA

A small piece of Cosmos 2251 satellite debris safely passed by the International Space Station at 2:38:33 a.m. EDT and the six crew members are exiting their Soyuz spacecraft to resume normal duties. At the time of closest approach, the debris was moving from left to right in front of the station at an estimated overall miss distance of between 11 and 14 kilometers and a radial miss distance of 120 meters.