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Several crew members of the ISS have taken a Soyuz rocket to safety
Photo: Mark Garcia / NASA
Because of a possible collision with space debris, the International Space Station ISS was briefly evacuated twice on Monday morning.
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The astronauts had both times brought themselves to safety in two spaceships that are docked with the ISS.
The Russian cosmonaut Pyotr Dubrov said, according to the state news agency Tass.
According to the European Space Agency Esa, the German astronaut Matthias Maurer and other crew members were in the spaceship "Crew Dragon", with which Maurer had only reached the ISS last Friday.
The other crew members protect themselves in the Soyuz spaceship.
In the event of a collision, the crew could have flown back to Earth so quickly.
Satellite debris hurtled through space
However, the astronauts were allowed to return to the station a short time later: The debris from a disused satellite flew past the ISS without causing any damage.
There is no evidence that there was a collision with space debris at any point, said Dubrow.
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In recent years, the ISS has had to dodge space junk again and again - such as the remains of rockets or fragments of disused satellites.
Usually it is enough if she changes the trajectory for this.
More than a million pieces of space junk that are more than one centimeter in size are now orbiting the earth.
And with every satellite that gives up its ghost but does not burn up in the atmosphere, the amount of waste increases.
Because of the extremely high velocities of the particles, millimeter-sized parts can become dangerous projectiles.
The crew keeps discovering leaks on the ISS
During the evacuation operation, the spacemen also found a possible leak in the Russian module »Zvezda«.
It should now be examined more closely, said Dubrow.
The International Space Station is getting on in years: crew members repeatedly discover cracks and leaks in the station, in July a software error led to difficulties docking a module, engines accidentally fired, and contact with the crew was broken off in the meantime.
Towards the end of the decade, the ISS will presumably be retired: The current cooperation agreement for its operation will expire in 2024, and continued operation until 2030 is considered technically possible.
vki / dpa
