© NASAISS
The space agency said that the crew may have to take shelter early on Wednesday as a 4-inch piece of debris from the destroyed Chinese Fengyun 1C weather satellite is heading towards it.
NASA said that object may come within 2,800 feet of the station. Tracking shows that the space junk could float within a "pizza box" of the ISS.
It warned that the crew will be directed to take precautions that include closing hatches between station modules and getting into their Soyuz spacecraft about 30 minutes before the time of closest approach, which is no later than 4:30 a.m.
Standard procedure for these encounters is to maneuver the space station out of the way of the predicted path of the debris if there is enough time to coordinate the move.
The space agency said Mission Control will continue to monitor the object, and will inform the crew whether it will need to take shelter.
It said NASA will also advise ISS crew members to take precaution to either move away from an object or take shelter if the chance of a collision with debris exceeds 1 in 10,000.
Space debris can move about 22,000 feet per second when in orbit, and collisions "with even a small piece of debris will involve considerable energy," according to NASA.
There is about 19,000 objects larger than 4-inches known to be orbiting around earth. NASA said that a population of about 500,000 pieces of debris smaller than 4-inches is floating around in Earth's orbit.
What I want to know is..................
What in the hell are they doing up there?
You dont throw billions of dollars at something without getting something back, THATS THE $64 trillion dollar question allowing for inflation.