Late this Friday, a chunk of space debris whooshed passed the International Space Station (ISS) at very close distance, triggering concerns for the astronauts' safety. The piece of debris did not buzz past extremely close to the station, Mission Controllers report, otherwise the six members of the ISS crew may have had to board the Russian-built Soyuz capsules, which act like life boats while affixed to the station. The recent incident again draws attention to the growing problem of space debris in the Earth's orbit, which continues to increase with each successful rocket launch, Space reports.

Experts managing the ISS program said that, while the piece of junk moved very close to the orbital lab (some 1,640 feet, or 500 meters), the astronauts were awaken from their sleep as a precaution. They weren't in engine at any time, but Mission Control wanted to have them awake just in case. The debris was noticed too late to allow for the massive, football field-sized platform to be maneuvered out of the way. Usually, the Russian-built thrusters on the lab are used for this sort of moves.

“Sorry we had to do it that way, and we had to wake you up in the middle of the night,” the Russian Mission Control radioed the astronauts. The piece of junk moved past the station at 10:48 pm EST, on Friday (0348 GMT, on S... (read more)