CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) - The International Space Station sidestepped a piece of treacherous junk Monday just hours before the planned launch of a supply ship from Virginia.
NASA said debris from an old, wrecked Russian satellite would have come dangerously close to the orbiting lab - just two-tenths of a mile - if not for the move.
The space station was maneuvered well out of harm's way to keep the outpost and its six inhabitants safe.
Mission Control was informed of the space junk over the weekend. It is wreckage from a Kosmos satellite that was launched in 1993 and collided with an Iridium spacecraft in 2009.
Mission Control said the space station's relocation would not affect Monday evening's scheduled launch of a commercial supply ship.
Orbital Sciences Corp.'s unmanned Cygnus capsule holds 5,000 pounds of cargo for NASA, including 32 mini research satellites, a meteor tracker, and a tank of high-pressure nitrogen to replenish a vestibule used by spacewalking astronauts. Liftoff was scheduled for 6:45 p.m. from Wallops Island, Virginia.
The launch, coming a half-hour after sunset, should be visible along much of the Eastern Seaboard, from South Carolina to Connecticut and Massachusetts.
As an added bonus, the space station was to pass overhead five minutes later, resembling a fast-moving star.
Traffic is heavy these days 260 miles up.
Just this past Saturday, a Dragon cargo ship supplied by the California-based SpaceX company - its fifth - departed the space station after a monthlong visit and splashed into the Pacific with a load of precious science samples.
On Wednesday, a Russian cargo ship is set to rocket into orbit from Kazakhstan and arrive at the space station the same day.
The Cygnus - named after the swan constellation - would arrive Sunday and remain at the station until early December. It is not designed to return safely like the Dragon, but rather will be filled with trash and burn up in the atmosphere.