Unidentified floating object near International Space Station

Science News

Jun 27, 2006, 12:20 GMT

Moscow - An unknown floating object close to the International Space Station ISS has concerned ground control, according to reports from the US Space Agency NASA Tuesday. The object is approximately 2.8 kilometres away from the International Space Station, said the Russian flight control centre in Moscow, citing a NASA source. The situation is quite serious, but does not yet require a dodge manoeuvre, said Russian flight trajectory expert Alexander Kireyev. 'The object has no number in the list of space debris,' Kireyev said, according to reports from the Russian Itar-Tass agency. 'It is however probably an old piece of space exploration equipment.' If the object gets any closer to the ISS, astronauts Jeff Williams and Pavel Vinogradov would have to take the precaution of moving to the rescue space shuttle Soyuz TM. A dodge manoeuvre could cause difficulties for the docking of the US space ship 'Discovery', due to be launched on July 1. © 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-Agentur

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SeekerJun 27th, 2006 - 12:45:15

2.x Kilometers.... any photographs? The object should be visible to the eye.

Any description of the object to include size, shape?

How did it get there? Orbital manuever or drift?

Not a lot of detail in this account...

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Unidentified floating object near International Space Station

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