NASA astronauts were forced to take cover after a Russian satellite broke into 200 small pieces, the space agency said.
Seven astronauts on the International Space Station were advised to take shelter for about an hour after the RESURS-P1 Russian Earth observation satellite broke and released 200 small space pieces for an unknown reason.
Threat To Continue For Several Days
NASA Mission Control said in a statement that the threat might continue for several days although the ISS resumed operations after the incident.
US space-tracking firm LeoLabs reported that they detected 180 pieces of space debris immediately after the defunct Russian satellite split on Wednesday.
Reason Remains Unknown
The Russian space agency Roscosmos didn’t respond to requests by news organizations, nor did they reveal the cause of the incident.
The US Space Command said the crew aboard the ISS was safe, including other satellites.
LeoLabs said that cleaning the debris of the Russian satellite would at weeks and even months.
