Astronauts at the international space station took shelter in their escape capsule Thursday during a close call with a tiny piece of space debris.
The small object was about the size of a bullet, and it was moving 20 times as fast. Warnings about the debris came Wednesday, but it was too late to take evasive action. Instead, the three-person crew spent 10 minutes in the escape capsule, waiting for the debris to pass. It came within three miles of the space station on Thursday afternoon.
The small chunk of metal came from a satellite rocket motor used on an earlier mission.
Wow! Something that small could kill several people real fast. It’s amazing!