A piece of space debris about a third of an inch long forced the crew of the international space station to take shelter in their return capsule Thursday, the first time an orbiting hazard has required an evacuation, NASA said.
The international space station crew was temporarily moved to a safety capsule Thursday, NASA says.
The three-member crew returned to the station after about 10 minutes in the Soyuz escape craft, NASA spokesman Kelly Humphries told CNN.
The 9-millimeter piece of debris came from an old rocket engine, and passed by the station harmlessly about 12:39 p.m. ET.
"They're getting back out of the Soyuz and reactivating all the station systems so they can get back to normal duties," Humphries said.
Mission controllers detected the orbiting debris Wednesday night, too late for the crew to take evasive action, Humphries said. In previous instances, controllers have been able to maneuver the station out of the way of a threatening piece of space junk, "but because of the late notice, we didn't have time to coordinate that," he said.
The station has had to dodge a possible collision eight times in the eight years it has been occupied, Humphries said.
"This is the first time we've had to shelter in a Soyuz," he said.
The Soyuz is the workhorse of the Russian space program, and one has been kept at the station for use as a possible lifeboat in case of emergency. Construction on the space station's orbital platform began in 1998, and it has had astronauts aboard since 2000.
