HOW TO DODGE SPACE JUNK

MOSCOW: The International Space Station (ISS) had to swerve away from a fragment of a U.S. launch vehicle on Friday, the head of Russia’s space agency said, the latest in a series of incidents in which space debris have forced astronauts to respond.

Calls to monitor and regulate space debris, or space junk, have grown since Russia conducted an anti-satellite missile test last month. This generated a debris field in orbit that U.S. officials said would pose a hazard to space activities for years.

Dmitry Rogozin, head of Russian space agency Roscosmos, said on

Friday that the ISS had been forced to move due to space junk from a U.S. launch vehicle sent into orbit in 1994.

Roscosmos said the station’s orbit, in an unscheduled manoeuvre carried out by mission control, dropped by 310 metres (339 yards) for nearly three minutes to avoid a close encounter.

Rogozin added that the manoeuvre would not affect the planned launch of the Soyuz MS-20 rocket on December 8.