Enlarge image
International Space Station above Earth
Photo: EUROPEAN SPACE AGENCY HANDOUT / EPA
The International Space Station has to make an unplanned evasive maneuver on Saturday afternoon to avoid a collision with space debris.
"The engines of the spacecraft Progress MS-18 will be switched on at 4:25 p.m. Moscow time (3:25 p.m. CEST)," the Russian space agency Roskosmos said in the morning.
This impulse accelerates the ISS slightly by one meter per second and raises its flight altitude by 1.8 kilometers.
According to Roskosmos, after the course correction, the ISS will have a new flight altitude of almost 414 kilometers above the earth.
The maximum flight altitude of the space station is almost 438 kilometers.
Space debris is an increasing problem in space travel.
Again and again the ISS has to avoid pieces of debris that are flying around in space.
A collision could destroy the space station.
In November, the ISS crew, including the German astronaut Matthias Maurer, had to get to safety in two spaceships docked at the station - the Russian military had previously shot down a disused satellite, the debris threatened to collide with the ISS.
The incident went smoothly.
kig/dpa