NASA @ 1:17 EST - Space Junk May Come Within Mile of ISS

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NASA: Space Junk No Threat To ISS
2-MaCrew Will Not Need To Move Into Pod For Shelter

POSTED: Tuesday, December 1, 2009
UPDATED: 3:32 pm EST December 1, 2009



ORLANDO, Fla. -- There is no longer a threat of space junk colliding with the International Space Station, NASA said on its Twitter account Tuesday afternoon.

VIDEO: Astronauts Warned
IMAGES: Space Station | Strange Stories

"The piece of debris from a Russian Cosmos satellite is not a threat to the ISS and the crew will not need to movie into the Soyuz," the NASA tweet said.

NASA said earlier in the day that the piece of debris -- estimated to be about 4 inches in diameter -- was expected to pass within .77 miles of the space station.

Mission control in Houston said it learned of the potential threat on Monday, which was too late to move the space station out of the path of the debris, which is from a Russian satellite that collided with a U.S. satellite on Feb 10.

The crew said goodbye to three other astronauts who undocked from the station Monday night and returned to Earth in Kazakhstan early Tuesday morning.

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