Sunita Williams updates: ISS fires its thrusters to avoid getting hit by satellite debris

NASA said that the ISS, under Sunita Williams' commandment, fired its thrusters for five minutes and 31 seconds to raise its orbit.

The International Space Station (ISS) successfully conducted a Pre-determined Debris Avoidance Maneuver (PDAM) to raise its orbit and avoid getting hit by a chunk of orbital debris.

American space agency NASA said the Progress 89 thrusters were fired at 2:09pm CST on Tuesday, November 19, for five minutes and 31 seconds. This debris avoidance maneuver helped raise the orbit of the space station and “provide an extra margin of distance from a piece of orbital debris from a defunct defense meteorological satellite that broke up in 2015”.

According to NASA, ballistic officials estimated that without the manoeuvre, the fragment of the debris could have come within around 2.5 miles of the ISS.

The orbital adjustment maneuver was done by the NASA in collaboration with Roscosmos and other international space station partners. The American space agency said that the exercise did not impact the operations of the space station.

The manoeuvre will also not affect the Progress 90 cargo craft launch from Kazakhstan's Baikonur Cosmodrome, which is scheduled for Thursday, November 21.

The two astronauts who served as test pilots for Boeing's Starliner - Butch Wilmore and Sunita Williams - will remain at the space station until February, flying back with SpaceX. Starliner returned empty in September.

Manoeuvre executed 1st time this year

According to a report from NPR, NASA informed the agency and other partners of the International Space Station of the "potential conjunction risk" on Sunday. Before deciding to carry out the manoeuvre, NASA, along with the US Space Force and other partners, closely monitored the debris.

The space station, travelling at least 17,500 mph, is in orbit in an environment filled with several hundreds of satellites and thousands of pieces of space debris, NPR said.

NASA was cited as saying that this was the first time the space station executed a maneuver to avoid space debris this year and the 39th time such preventive measures have been taken since the ISS' launch in 1998.

NPR cited Aerospace Corporation, which backs national security space programs, and said that even small blueberry-sized space debris "can create the impact of a falling anvil". NASA said that a collision with a small piece can "involve considerable energy".

Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore have been studying how spaceflights affect astronauts' immunity and blood system.