Astronauts forced to take refuge in escape pod after International Space Station comes under attack from junk



Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were forced to take refuge in a escape pod after coming under attack from debris travelling at 17,500mph.



The three-strong crew scrambled into the emergency capsule to seek shelter as the junk , speeding through orbit seven times faster than a rifle bullet, came close to striking the ISS 220 miles above Earth.

The fragment, measuring just one-third of an inch in diameter, came from a defunct U.S. rocket motor.



Space danger: Astronauts aboard the International Space Station were forced to take refuge in a escape pod after coming under attack from debris

Despite its size, such debris is capable of piercing a hole through the station's hull, leading to rapid de-pressurisation - and death for the crew.



Commander Mike Fincke and Sandra Magnus, both from Nasa, and Russian flight engineer Yuri Lonchakov, huddled in the Soyuz for 11 minutes.

The craft's life support systems run independent of the space station. It can be used to make an emergency escape back to Earth if necessary.

As the crisis continued, experts on the ground monitored the fragment's path using high-powered tracking telescopes.



The crew was given the all clear at 4.45pm UK time.

'We are reactivating all space station systems so we can get back to business,' said Nasa spokesman Kelly Humphries.



Cosmonaut Yury Lonchakov, Expedition 18 flight engineer, photographs himself during a spacewalk on Tuesday: He was one of the astronauts forced to take refuge

In the eight years that astronauts have lived aboard the space station, it has had to shift its orbit eight times to avoid collisions with dangerous space junk.

But Mr Humphries said tonight: 'This is the first time we have had to evacuate and shelter in a Soyuz.'



The debris was an old motor which probably once belonged to the space station. It came within around three miles of the craft.

Nasa tracks around 25,000 items of orbiting debris from the ground, ranging from used rocket parts to defunct satellites.

All astronauts will have received extensive training on evacuation to Earth aboard Soyuz in case of fire, chemical leak, debris impact or medical emergency.



The station has been continuously manned since November 2000 and, to date, no evacuation has been necessary.

Space junk is considered a threat to the 800 or so commercial and military satellites estimated to be operating in space as well as to the International Space Station.



The incident occurred only a day after NASA postponed the launch of shuttle Discovery on a mission to the space station on Sunday.

A segment of the space station photographed during a walk earlier this week

The U.S. space agency blamed a hydrogen leak during fueling for the postponement.

The purpose of the shuttle flight - the first of five planned for this year - is to deliver a final set of solar power panels to the space station and transport Japan's first astronaut to serve as a member of the live-aboard station crew, 45-year-old aerospace engineer Koichi Wakata.

Construction of the International Space Station began in 1998 and is scheduled for completion in 2011, with operations continuing until around 2015.

The research facility is the largest artificial satellite in Earth orbit and larger than any other previous space station.

It is a joint project among the space agencies of the the U.S. (NASA), Russia (RKA), Japan (JAXA), Canada (CSA) and ten European nations through the (European Space Agency).

The latest incident comes a month after two satellites collided in space, 500 miles above Siberia, creating a crowd of debris which threatened to hit the International Space Station.

At the time Nasa said the risk to the three astronauts on board the space station was low.



The two satellites - the U.S. Iridium satellite and the Russian Cosmos 2251 - crashed into a defunct Russian military probe at speeds of at least 15,000mph.