
Space Mission: Indian-origin American astronaut Sunita Williams is currently in space with her colleagues. Present in the space station for the last several months. She had gone to the Space Center for a week in June, but now she will return to Earth in February next year. Sunita is currently working on many important studies related to space and is also the commander of the space station. However, in recent times the lives of astronauts have been in danger twice.
Recently, the risk of collision with space debris had increased for the International Space Station (ISS). The garbage was moving rapidly towards the space station, due to which the lives of Sunita and her companions were in danger. This danger has come to light not just once but twice. The special thing is that Russia’s Progress 89 cargo craft started its engine in time, due to which the space station could be lifted to a height and the garbage was saved from colliding with it.
Russia took a big step to get protection from space debris
To avoid this danger, Russia decided to raise the space station. The Progress 89 cargo craft fired its engines for three and a half minutes on Monday (November 25) morning, bringing the space station to an altitude of 500 meters and avoiding collision with debris. Earlier, a similar attempt was made on November 19 when the space station was raised for 5 minutes to avoid debris.
Astronauts’ lives in danger due to collision with garbage
The amount of waste in space is extremely dangerous. At least 40,500 objects in Earth’s orbit are more than 4 inches wide. There are also 1.1 million fragments and approximately 130 million smaller pieces of debris. The speed of these small debris is so fast that they can cause danger to satellites and the International Space Station. Collision with such debris could put astronauts’ lives at risk.
Measures to protect against space debris
Many measures are being taken to deal with space waste, but it remains a big challenge. Space agencies like NASA and Russia keep taking measures from time to time to protect the space station from this waste. Sunita and other astronauts are continuously performing their tasks in space, but such dangers create the need for even more caution for them.
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