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[i]For the first time in five years, the International Space Station changed course on Wednesday to avoid a piece of space junk -- in this case, satellite debris that the Russians have insisted wasn't there. The five-minute maneuver made use of the engines aboard the European Space Agency's Automated Transfer Vehicle, or ATV, which is docked at the Russian end of the station. As a result of the thruster firing, the space station's 18,000-mph progress around Earth was slowed by about 2 mph, lowering the average height of its orbit by about a mile. In a status report, NASA said the course change was required because the space debris was predicted to come within about a mile (1.627 kilometers) of the station -- bringing the risk of a collision above the threshold for a "debris avoidance maneuver." Russian news reports said Wednesday's maneuver was required to dodge "pieces of space debris" of unspecified national origin. ESA's news release stated merely that the debris came "from an old satellite." NASA's main station news page identified the threatening object as "a spent Russian rocket," but the more detailed daily report called it "part of the Kosmos-2421 satellite" (part of the payload, not part of the booster). Launched in June 2006, the Cosmos-2421 was a naval surveillance satellite, designed for electronic eavesdropping to keep track of Western military vessels. According to U.S. tracking data, the satellite disintegrated on March 14 into hundreds of pieces -- with further fragmentation on April 28 and June 9. More than 500 objects resulted, creating one of the largest debris clouds in space history. In recent weeks, the station has been cycling through the thickest region of the debris cloud. "It's been giving us fits," said one analyst, who asked that his name not be used because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Although the peak concentration has passed, further avoidance maneuvers may yet prove to be necessary, another source told msnbc.com on condition of anonymity.[/i]
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