Space station dodges piece of old NASA satellite

CAPE CANAVERAL, FLA. (AP) - The International Space Station has steered clear of space junk.

Flight controllers fired thrusters on the space station Tuesday morning. That moved the orbiting lab and its crew of six safely away from a chunk of an old NASA research satellite.

The debris originally was projected to come within one-tenth of a mile of the space station. The latest estimate put the close approach at a half-mile. Because of the uncertainty, NASA elected to move the space station.

NASA says the space station relocation will have no significant impact on next Monday’s launch of the space shuttle Discovery. Discovery launched the atmospheric research satellite in 1991.

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Online:

NASA: https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/station/main/index.html