spacetoday.net: ISS dodges satellite

Posted: Sat, May 31, 2003, 11:30 AM ET (1530 GMT)
ISS illustration (NASA)

The International Space Station maneuvered Friday to avoid any possibility of a collision with a small Italian satellite. The Progress cargo spacecraft attached to the station fired its thrusters for seven minutes Friday to raise the orbit of the ISS by about 1.8 kilometers to avoid MegSat 0, an experimental Italian communications satellite launched in 1999. Had the maneuver not been performed, the 35-kg spacecraft would have passed through a "zone of avoidance" surrounding the station at distances of between 4 and 50 kilometers. The maneuver was the sixth time the ISS has had to move to avoid a close approach by another satellite; NASA officials said they previously forecast that two such maneuvers would be required each year.