Dangerous situation in orbit: the ISS had to activate its thrusters to prevent a collision.

On Tuesday, November 19, at 10:09 PM Kyiv time, the engines of the Russian cargo spacecraft "Progress," attached to the International Space Station (ISS), were ignited. This maneuver was performed to slightly alter the station's orbit, allowing it to evade a potentially hazardous piece of space debris, reports Space.

According to a statement from NASA, there was a threat of collision for the ISS with debris from a defunct military meteorological satellite that disintegrated in 2015. Since then, the debris has been orbiting Earth and poses a risk to operational satellites, including the ISS.

Calculations indicated that without the evasive maneuver, the piece of space debris would pass within 4 km of the ISS and could potentially collide with the station. Therefore, NASA, in collaboration with "Roscosmos," decided to alter the ISS's orbit by firing the engines of the Russian cargo spacecraft "Progress." The engines operated for 5.5 minutes, successfully averting a dangerous incident.

Such evasive maneuvers are not uncommon. From 1999 to 2022, the ISS had to dodge space debris 32 times. In 2023, the station had to change its orbit due to space debris on two occasions.

However, such incidents may become more frequent, as the low Earth orbit is increasingly populated with defunct satellites and spent rocket stages.