© NASAThe International Space Station
The Russian space programme's Mission Control Center says it will move the International Space Station into a different orbit to avoid possible collision with a fragment of debris. Mission Control Center spokeswoman Nadyezhda Zavyalova said the Russian Zvevda module will fire booster rockets to carry out the operation Thursday at 07:22am. Moscow time (0322 GMT).
The space station performs evasive manoeuvres when the likelihood of a collision exceeds one in 10,000.
NASA estimates that more than 21,000 fragments of orbital debris larger than 10 centimetres (3.9 inches) are stuck in earth's orbit, and experts worry that orbiting junk is becoming a growing problem for the space industry.
There are six astronauts - three Russians, two Americans and one from Japan - on-board the orbiting laboratory.
Meanwhile, a giant supply ship burned up over the South Pacific early on Wednesday in a self-destruct operation after a six-month mission to the International Space Station, the European Space Agency (ESA) said.
Laden with rubbish from the ISS, the Automated Transfer Vehicle (ATV) undocked from the orbital outpost last Friday to begin its final manoeuvres.
"Edoardo Amaldi and its waste burnt up harmlessly in the upper atmosphere at 0130 GMT," ESA said in a press release.
Undocking had been delayed by three days because astronauts had sent the craft a wrong identification code.
Named after a 20th-century Italian physicist, the Edoardo Amaldi was the third of five ATVs that Europe is scheduled to supply for the ISS.
The robot craft, each the size of a London double-decker bus, are designed to make one-way trips, hauling up tonnes of food, water, air, equipment and other supplies for the ISS crew.
The ATVs also use on-board engines to boost the ISS, whose altitude drops because it is in low orbit and dragged by lingering atmospheric molecules.
At the end of their trip, filled with garbage and human waste, the craft detach and burn up in a controlled destruction over the least inhabited part of the globe.
The final two ATVs should be launched in April 2013 and April 2014 respectively, ESA said.
@comment (the SOTT editors?) -- I have to tell you that whoever writes these "comments" sounds like some fanatical cult member who is vigorously trying to impose their belief system upon others. This web site continually tries to twist (nearly) everything to fit the SOTT "agenda" (regular readers of this site know where I'm coming from). Please -- just give all of us a break!!! There's an obvious slant here, but I tolerate it (for now) because, sadly enough, SOTT.net is still one of the better "truth" sites, in my humble opinion (ie, as far as I can tell).
In this particular case -- you can't plan for a random meteorite hit and adjust your orbit accordingly. Only known (man-made) space junk that is traveling at about the same speed and altitude can be accounted for. It's not ALL about meteors and cometary bombardments, etc. As far as HAARP and chemtrails go, I recommend that you keep an open mind and consider ALL the facts, ie, don't believe everything the C's tell you even if most of what they say is true/accurate.
The best disinformation is 80% true. It's likely that the C's channel was taken over by 4D STS (or similar) back in the early/mid 2000's, so all readers should keep that in mind, ie, there's a lot of really good stuff at this site as long as you understand how the SOTT editors can be potentially "blinded" by these mitigating factors.