NASA now says satellite debris no threat to space station

NASA has given the all-clear to the three crewmembers of the International Space Station after tracking data indicated a small piece of Chinese space junk poses no threat to them.

This morning around 7, flight controllers notified commander Dmitry Kondratyev and flight engineers Cady Coleman and Paolo Nespoli that they needed to prepare to evacuate to their Soyuz TMA-20 capsule if the debris continued on its course, which would bring it to within 2.7 miles of the station. The closest approach was predicted for 4:21 p.m. ET. The all-clear was given at 2:41 p.m. ET.

The debris came from a defunct Chinese weather satellite deliberately destroyed in 2007 during an anti-satellite weapons test.

It's the second junk scare in several days. Friday, flight controllers moved the space station out of the way of another piece of satellite debris. More than 500,000 pieces of orbiting trash are tracked from Earth.

Today's nervousness came as NASA astronaut Ron Garan and Russian cosmonauts Andrey Borisenko and Alexander Samokutyaev continued their journey to the space station. They lifted off before dawn today in Kazakhstan and will dock Wednesday at 7:18 p.m. ET.

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